I stumbled across Hungarian avant garde metal project Thy Catafalque via Finnish label Blood Music, and have been buying their/his releases ever since, although I'm currently one release behind. Thy Catafalque is the brainchild of Tamás Kátai, who has also released music under his own name, as well as under the moniker Neolunar. Thy Catafalque's music incorporates Hungarian folk into its black metal harshness. Later albums have dialed down the harshness a bit, and Kátai's other recent works aren't metal at all. The same high quality and attention to detail is woven through all of his releases though.
Warning and 40 Watt Sun are both the work of singer/guitarist Patrick Walker. I was late to the party for Warning, but fortunately saw them play twice, once in San Francisco, and once at Days of Darkness in Baltimore, when Walker reformed the band to do a "Watching From A Distance" tour a couple of years ago. The shows were an emotional ride of crushing intensity. 40 Watt Sun continues in a similar vein, although a slightly less traditionally heavy one. Walker was supposed to do a solo show in Seattle on May 8th, which obviously didn't happen. Hopefully he'll get a chance to play some shows in the future. In the meantime, support him on Bandcamp.
Shifting gears a bit, we come to Dark Leaves, a project I discovered earlier this month when Roger Linney of Reverb Worship decided to release a lathe cut 7". I gave a listen and decided that I had room for one more lathe cut on my sagging shelves. Plus, their home base is Penzance, which seemed like a nice little town when I visited. Dark, atmospheric folk is the order of the day here.
Similarly, I came into the Alula Down fold via Roger Linney and his current tendency to release lathe cut 7"s. They're a beautiful UK experimental folk duo, and well worth your time.
Simon Finn, on the other hand, has been in my life a lot longer, although not nearly as long as he has been releasing music, since I wasn't quite three years old when his first record came out. By the time his second record came out (a mere 35 years later), I was on board. This was mostly thanks to David Tibet putting him on my radar. Finn was a member of Current 93 for awhile. He does raw ferocity and resigned melancholy equally well, and his lyrics are insightful observations of the human condition. Plus, he's a nice guy.
United Bible Studies are an experimental, sometimes improvisational, UK folk collective who have countless releases in a variety of styles. Various members have their own projects as well, but for now, I'll just share the main Bandcamp page. Every release is a musical adventure.
United Bible Studies Bandcamp here.
More tomorrow...
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