Theo Angell is part of the freakiest end of the freak folk spectrum, having played with drone/folk/blues outfits like Hall of Fame and Jackie O Motherfucker. His sound is otherworldly and spiritual, but based in traditional forms...like country blues played by people who have been dead for a long time. I reviewed his last record Dearly Beloved a year or two ago, and liked it a whole lot, so I jumped on this new one, which is even better. Here's the review from PopMatters last week. Theo Angell and the Tabernacle Hillside SingersAuraplinth(Digitalis Industries)US release date: 31 October 2007UK release date: Available as importby Jennifer KellyBreak on through to the other sideStrange and beautiful folk/blues songs are twisted and stretched, slowed and quickened, layered with lucid sunshine and wrapped in murky mystery here on Theo Angell’s latest solo album, showcasing the death-obsessed weirdness and latent eccentricity at the bottom of all traditionally-based music. Unlike his last, Dearly Beloved, Auraplinth contains no caffeinated banjo romps, but rather a series of ghostly meditations on love, death, nature and the supernatural. Harmonies brush each other softly in surreal dissonance and sudden accord—that’s thanks to Angell’s Tabernacle Hillside Singers, namely Cynthia Nelson, Dan Brown (like Angell ex-Hall of Fame) and Josh Stevenson—and Angell’s own voice flits from nasal falsetto Appalachianisms to deep blues soaked tones. “Have U Seen the Birds Lately” has a spectral, chilling shimmer to it, the high whine of chorus in another space altogether from the rueful simplicity of the verse. And “Flurdid” is the oddest cut of all, whispery moans and throat-singing oddities paced by a stone-aged funeral drum. Plinth, you might want to know, is what you call the foundation under a column; aura is the indefinable, invisible energy that all life carries with it. Ancient foundations, ineffable spirituality.. .sounds just about right to me. Here's a video of Theo playing with Hamish Kilgour of the Clean last fall at Brooklyn's Glasslands space. Theo Angell & Friends Live at Glasslands on Sept. 11, 2007

Add to My Profile | More Videos And the ever-present MySpace link for streams:http://www.myspace.com/theoangellthetabernaclehillsidesingers