Album Club 2019: Thuja - All Strange Beasts Of The Past
 

Thuja - All Strange Beasts Of The Past
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Final Rating 7.9 out of 10

Get listenin' yall.

Thoughts: First of all, this is a short record considering it's a modern one, but I think it works well considering the subject matter, which is a droning meandering through a minimal free folk soundscape. This is just a random thought of mine, but it feels like the music is exploring all the misty, empty territory between that branch in the foreground and the (whatever that is) in the background. The music here imposes nothing on the listener, allowing me to complete the themes with my own imagination. This is a CD-only release, but looking at the tracklist breakdown, it's almost vinyl in its format. The first six tracks combined length is about the same at the seventh track's length, like the first six would be side A, and the long seventh track would be side B. The free-form music of side A is a multi-sectional, dreamy prologue to the main event of the album, the 18-minute field recording wherein the music is more like a veil over the real world.

Rating: 7/10

Associated with the Jewelled Antler Collective - including Loren Chasse from id battery -
Thuja use bowed and plucked instruments on a collection of improvisations that communicate
the rural luster of Hans Reichel or the eccentric microtonal sensations of a Harry Partch.
Field recordings that are artfully manipulated, reach their mesmerizing culmination in the final
18-minute work that’s an assemblage of swishing woodland brush, a thicket of open-air human
liveliness and inattentive sound blundering resulting in a sublimely free-folkish treasure.

7.9

I've listened once and thoroughly enjoyed myself. Absolutely gorgeous album, and certainly worth hearing. I need to listen to it at least one more time before giving my full thoughts, which I will do within the next day or two.

I will say that I can see this staying on rotation for at least the next month, probably more.

Real ephemeral stuff, this. Thuja's brand of earthy, improvisational folk seems to drift on the outskirts of perception, with consistent rhythms and melodies seeming fleeting at best. This effect is aided by the massive amounts of foley and ambient drone used on this album, as sounds of metal, rock and wood as well as vast yawns of mysterious hums mask the muted guitar and percussion.

If I were to summarize All Strange Beasts into a mental image (which it constructs musically very well), I'd say it's like walking through an abandoned town that floats in the cloudy sky. Where there once was a vibrant culture of bustling, friendly markets and children running through the streets now lies only dilapidated shacks and emptiness. All the while during your stroll, this album is playing in your peripheral, drifting seemingly halfway between a dream and a memory. Every time you try and focus your ears to it, it fades into the windy ambiance. It's music that shows great age but is simultaneously ageless- it's music of a time long forgotten that has, through time, sort of fused itself with the harmony of nature.

Thuja execute a well-done but relatively short-lived atmosphere with this album. It's not mind-boggling or life changing, but I don't think that was the intention. They attempt to create ghostly music that exists in the past, and they do a good job.

**** I forgot about this. What's the deadline?

Tomorrow.

Back just in time from my vacation to participate like a true member should!I'm actually proud of myself.

Reaction

I'll be quick because I have to get to work. I liked the album a lot. I expected to NOT like this as much because I have a very hard time finding good free folk that I like a lot. So, good job. Looks like this came out in 2002 on Emperor Jones which is a label I've never f*cking heard of in my life. I'm surprised because there's some bands I recognize/like on there such as American Analog Set, Truman's Water, and a few Mountain Goats releases.

Lots of sound experimentation on this with some droney background synth. I like that combination. Last track is creepy as f*ck. I love it.

This is something I'll listen to again.

8/10

That's not out of ten, you hack!

I missed that rule. You learn math yet in college?

What is this, third grade? Post your rating as a decimal like a goddamn adult.

(review coming soon)

Eh I'm not really a math guy, just like you aren't really a reading guy.

I need to get this album done, but I also wanted to check out Tool's Ænima album. Playing both at the same time now and the results are not half bad!

One of the best "free" folk albums I've heard in ages. It has a refreshingly exploratory yet uneasy atmosphere, like the soundtrack to a game where you wander a mystical realm somewhere between demon infested feudal Japan and the misty haunted highlands of Appalachia.

Needless to say, this was a great suggestion and a fantastic album to kick off the Album Club. Definitely deserves more spins.

9/10

Cool album, nice listening experience. There's a lot of texture to the layers of sound, especially in that final 17min track. I keep wanting to describe it as good storytelling, because I felt to some extent that I was following a plot. Or maybe it's just because this album is great daydream fuel. I'll be checking out more from Thuja, good rec.

7/10

Sadly, between my very enthusiastic first listen and my second, the album lost some of its magic for me. The first time, every new piece and texture was surprising and drew me in. The second time around, the free expression lacked the same sense of newness and felt quite a bit less exciting. Halfway through, I felt quite bored.

That said, it's not a bad album at all. I would consider listening to it again if I got into the right frame of mind. I enjoyed the spiritual, ritualistic, almost transcendental feel of the album, especially the closer. It was a fun new way to experience folk instruments, which are usually relegated to highly structured songs and strict rules.

My rating: 6.5

Anteater thought it hip to give every album a fortnight to review. You have till a fortnight or when the internet crashes, whatever comes first.

I feel irrationally stressed out by the album club already.
Gonna do the album this evening if I can, just to be done with it, even if I have a lot of time left.

I listen to the album last week, but the thread wasn't started to post a review. Here a whole week passed already, and I still haven't found time.

Thuja - All Strange Beasts of the Past

I'm on board for the first handful tracks, where I find a raw but beautiful, sort of mournful atmosphere that I can immerse myself in. The sonic presence of these textures is a great asset to the album and it's very suited for a headphone enabled deep-dive.

Because my preferences as a music listener are as they are, my attention trails off during the last 3 tracks. Especially the very last (and very long) track. Not really interested in these if I'm being perfectly honest.

Basically, when this album feels like some raw folk music of some kind, I find it quite convincing. A strong aesthetic and some tracks that ooze atmosphere. But when it goes for a more ambient focus, I feel like it becomes more run off the mill and I feel like I've heard it all before.

But the first 4 tracks engage me with no problems at all.

Do I really have to rate it? I'd rather not.

EDIT: I guess so! Rating after a personal perspective would have to be something like a 6/10. Definitely not without qualities, but I'm also probably not coming back, so I can't really score it higher. To me, 6/10 is the critical limit for something I'd actually chose to keep in my CD collection or not. Right around that point, it would be balancing on a knife's edge, and that's what it would be if I had the CD.

I dunno, are our ratings compounded afterwards?

I actually like this idea: play a dark/ambient free folk album with something not.

I update the original post on an album's thread (like this one) on the last day with the total average of everyons's ratings. :)

It’s two weeks to get it in, right?

I'm posting the next album sometime tomorrow, but I'm not going to be a stickler for every straggler. If I notice people aren't reviewing multiple weeks in a row though...heads will roll.

The reason I like this album is because it connects the ethereal with the earthy. It’s definitely a west coast nature scene. Like terrestrial nature it’s not always easy going. This album sits comfortably is llllldissonance and remains ambient. It’s sort of like swimming in murky water. It’s nice but in the back of your head it’s like what’s down there. A drowning man will grasp at water moccasins. I’m falling asleep.

10/10

The flat feeling I have of that Tool album not being interesting enough was helped quite a bid with the added textures of the Thuja album. Sometimes it fit so well you'd think it was how it was recorded and not just a random musical sandwich.

Alright I'll go back and edit the review.

Opens on some seemingly prepared instruments a la Keith Rowe before slipping into some gorgeous soundscapes that vaguely remind me of my own playing in parts. These improvisations are careful and precise but still willing to take chances. As quickly as the album points toward a more explicitly folky sound by incorporating mandolin and possibly banjo, it falls back into dreamy drones and tasty interplay. The percussion on this album remind me of Sun City Girls' Charles Gocher's style. Towards the end of the album, things begin to get more droney and meditative, with the cinematic closer taking a more expanded look at where the album started with field recordings, percussion, drones, and prepared instruments finding their way around one another in the strange space that is this album. The way these tracks transition into new ideas and one another is incredibly fluid, which makes from some strong tension-building and resolution. This record is simultaneously earthy and otherworldly and full of dynamic ideas that aren't rushed into or deserted too quickly. Fairly certain I'll be returning to this. 4.5/5

Don't forget the average on this one, Ant.

With Frown's added in (and scaled up appropriately to an out of 10 rating), the final score is 7.9 out of 10.

Told ya.

I played the album twice and skipped a few tracks the third time. I really don't recall anything exciting to write home about the album. "Good but forgettable" isn't what I mean. It's just so subdued that after listening to the album twice there was hardly anything I could recall about the album. There is not much I can think about to say about it.

I don't like to speculate what instruments were used when I am unsure. However on the third untitled track it sounded like someone was frailing a banjo. The the third untitled track is the same length of time as 4'33 by John Cage's. The length of a song coupled with a sound of an instrument* is only the only thing I can recall about the album. (*I'm not saying it was a banjo, it was just reminiscent of the sound of a frailing banjo.)

I think it was a good pick to start off Album Club 2019.

rating: 7/10

The fuck, Nea! The score's already been tallied.

Everyone knows when something's been posted on MB it can never be changed.

Revisited this again today. It’s still ****ing great.