COME QUIETLY 7” cover
Design by Ryan Johnson
Zachary Cale
COME QUIETLY b/w THE WEDDING PARTY
Zachary Cale - Brooklyn, Bruar Falls 2010
Photo by Aya Rosen
CATALOG: AHE-08
UPC: 881626930823
7” edition of 500
RELEASE DATE:
March 1, 2010
US DISTRIBUTION:
Fusetron
LABEL CONTACT:
ARTIST CONTACT:
BOOKING:
PRESS:
Culled from the archive of unreleased songs by Zachary Cale comes two unearthed gems,available for the first time through All Hands Electric.
Recorded during the interim of his second LP "Walking Papers" and his band Illuminations' "See-Saw" LP, these two songs were originally cut as demos, but the fresh sound and spontaneity of the recordings warranted a release of their own.
"Come Quietly" is a field recording from the modern age, complete with chirping birds and the groan of passing cars. The song is a sort of noir narrative with lyrics that illustrate a dialogue between a captor and his captive. Taking cues from the pre-war folk tradition, Cale adopts the voice of both characters. Featuring mournful mandolins and tortured harmonicas over a countrified mariachi stomp, it's as ragged and tuneful as folk music gets, and the inflections in Cale's glass-breaking yowl recall some of Kurt Cobain's acoustic demos from the Sup Pop heyday.
"The Wedding Party" is a stream of consciousness ode to love with lyrical images floating by like faces in train windows. The vocal melody is undeniably catchy, sitting perfectly in the space between hypnotic fingerpicked guitar rhythms and ghost-like backing harmonies courtesy of Prudence Teacup. With it's rapid fire couplets and unabashed pop-minded melody it sounds kind of like Bob Dylan covering the Beach Boys in a dimly lit basement. The rush of images and the giddy, pulse like rhythm makes "The Wedding Party" another classic in Zachary Cale's growing canon of songs.
"This is an extremely pleasant and well done indie psych folk single from a young Olympia-to-Brooklyn transplant. Zachary Cale’s voice has a sardonic and cutting edge to it that brings to mind at times Current 93’s David Tibet or Comus’ Roger Wootton, which stops the well constructed melodies of these two from being merely pretty and floating off into the clouds. Very grave, but memorable music. This 7” (which follows two solo full-lengths, as well as work with his band Illuminations, reviewed here earlier) brings to mind Sister Lovers-era Alex Chilton, Tim Hardin, and even the more depressing moments of Robyn Hitchcock. One of the best things about doing these reviews is when a great record by someone who you never would have paid attention to otherwise rolls in, and this is one of those records. Great stuff."
-Chris Strunk (Still Single/Dusted Magazine)
“There’s a certain gruff waver to Cale’s voice, the way it bites at the edge of your eardrum that hefts it out of the standard doldrums of a man with a guitar. Real emotion lives in the vocals Cale projects, and his ruminations on love and its numerous varied outcomes, good bad ugly, have a tangible weight to them.
-Noah Sanders (Sound on the Sound)
"'Come Quietly' remains strange enough through its duration to shed influence in the course of the first couplet and the scruffy field recordings. The song is deceivingly Opry-house or ethereal church pulpit, but satisfyingly met with Daniel Johnston in a peak of clarity or the lazy neighborhood shaman throwing Dylan bones. . . 'The Wedding Party,' in stark contrast, is a finger-picked hymnal, magnifies this solo-artist’s (and the label’s) mastery of roots music, which he eventually spins into a web of intimate, intriguing, singer-songwriter shimmering mystery and misery."
-Kevin J. Elliott (Primitive Futures/The Agit Reader)
Tracks:
B: The Wedding Party
