Musk Ox - Self-Titled
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Musk Ox comes advertised as “neofolk.” This throws me, as my admittedly limited understanding of the term runs to Current 93 and menacing stuff on Cold Spring Records. But Wikipedia includes Agalloch under “neofolk,” and Musk Ox recalls that band’s acoustic side. So, terminology aside, campfire singalongs aren’t at issue. Instead, pristinely picked acoustic guitars (think Nick Drake) meander through settings of piano, cello, wind instruments, and nature sounds (e.g., chirping crickets). Vocal ooh’s and aah’s float in at times. Normally, music this tonally static — it mines bog-standard major and minor scales — does not interest me. But this record is undeniably soothing. I have found myself returning to it often. One cannot subsist solely on blastbeats and blasphemy. Sometimes one should hear acoustic instruments played deliberately and melodiously.
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