Originally
released on cassette in a seriously limited edition run of only 50 copies
(which is about the number of people who still own a tape deck) from the great
little Swedish boutique tape label Zeon Light, E GONE’s second full length
album Advice To Hill Walkers gets a CD reissue with bonus tracks as a joint
release from Sunrise Ocean Bender and Deep Water Acres. As the original release
has been remixed and remastered by Kevin Moist from Evening Fires and lovingly
repackaged with gorgeous new artwork, we are going to treat this as new album
and listen with fresh ears and not cop out and just re-post our original review.
E GONE is
the musical alter ego of Swedish multi-instrumentalist Daniel Westerlund, who
must really take the credit for wrenching the banjo from the cold dead hands of
redneck hillbillys and returning it to its African/Middle Eastern roots.
Following the more acoustic and Psych Folk inspired Goner project, E GONE mixes
traditional instruments with digital technology creating a rich blend of beats,
bubbling electronica and Eastern flavours. The E GONE debut album, All The Suns
Of The Earth from 2014, was and exercise in trying on various musical styles to
see which fitted best and was a very eclectic record mixing Psychedelic
electric sitar headswirlers, Post Rock synth drones, far out Psych Rock and
gentle Acid Folk……..we think the technical term is “all over the shop”…….but by
the time the excellent Smokediver EP landed Daniel had found his groove,
developing his own unique style of “Whirled Music”. Advice To Hill Walkers is a
far more focused record than the debut and the best E GONE release to date…………blending
ethnic percussion and Hip-Hop beats with subtle electronics and Eastern vibes,
it’s not that far away from the records that Nation (the original home of Loop
Guru and Transglobal Underground) released in the early 90s, but much more for
the head than the dancefloor. Yeah, we know that tapes are fashionable and have
a certain hipster friendly novelty value about them, but you have to admit that
for anything other than lo-fi Indie and messy Garage Rock they are a bit shit………the
cassette release of the album did it no favours sonically and the
remix/remaster brings out the depth and subtlety of the record previously
unheard, there can be some comparisons made with wonderful Kevin Moist produced
Psych Folk album To Preserve The Mystery by United Bible Studies that has the
same complex sound structure of drones and relatively sparse instrumentation. If
you were one of the few people who heard the original tape version, you will be
blown away by Advice To Hill Walkers 2.0.
Firstly, for
those of you new to this record, don’t be fooled by the title………..this is not a
gentle Psych Folk Sunday ramble up a few hills, but more of an epic psychedelic
trek through the mountains where you may need oxygen at some point to complete
your journey. Musically, it’s a stunner………. an all-instrumental travelogue of
an upward trek through a rugged landscape (as literal or metaphorical as you’d
like), twelve station points mapped out across endlessly varied
ethno-electro-psychedelic terrain. The journey starts with the elongated drones
of ‘Mark the Spot Where You Leave the Injured’ guiding the listener gently into
the Eastern European gypsy swirl of ‘Your Goal Is To Know Everything And Say
Nothing’ (watch the video here). Advice For Hill Walkers takes
influences/inspiration from many sources……… Picking up where the Smokediver EP
left off, ‘Follow Moonmilk Rivers’ has all the chaos and confusion of a Middle
Eastern bazaar, ‘Build Your Camp Out Of Alpine Moss’ has the feel of early John
Carpenter soundtracks while ‘Dwell In Tents By Day, Hike At Random By Night’,
the atmospheric ‘Continue
Ascent While Blindfolded’ and the previously unreleased ‘Fast Before Stalker
Season’ have the vibe of a mid-90s Trip Hop tracks. The wonderful ‘Find New Methods
For Compass Use’ is an sweet combination of field recordings (in this case a
rainstorm) and drones. There is a huge European folk/Middle Eastern influence
on many of the tracks, more so on the enthralling ‘Continue Ascent While
Blindfolded’ and one of the new tracks that did not make the cut on the
original release, ‘You Don’t Know It yet but We Are Losing You’ is based on the
Syrian traditional song ‘Ya Bent
Ehkimini’. In a parallel universe, E GONE’s fellow country folk Goat have
dropped the masks and the female singers and gone acoustic…….the whirling
‘Record The Humming Of Melodious Caves’, (watch the video here), layers guitar,
banjo, electronics and percussion in a shamanistic African ritual via Stockholm……..although
at a serene pace, speed the track up, add vocals and lots of wah-wah guitar it
would not be out of place on the new Goat LP. The record closes with the epic
‘Reach The Summit, Egg!’ which pulls together all the strands and influences on
the album to create one massive 10 minute psychedelic whirl of a track with an
extended drone out to finish which is a total mindblower.
The CD
re-issue of E GONE’s Advice To Hill Walkers is out NOW on Sunrise Ocean
Bender/Deep Water Acres and is available from the SOB web store (Dayz Of Purple
in the UK are also carrying a few here). If you want a copy for when you go
hill walking, a digital download is available from the E GONE Bandcamp page
here http://e-gone.bandcamp.com/album/advice-to-hill-walkers
along with the CD. The Smokediver EP is
still available as a "name your price" download from https://egone.bandcamp.com.
Review
remixed/rewritten with bonus words by THEE PSYCHEDELICATESSEN
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