Double LP
The archival compilation game is a competitive one, but Efficient Space make another play for the throne with this latest selection of geographically unmoored private press gems that skirt the outer-edges of hobbyist folk expressionism. And congrats if you've heard more than one of these songs before, but you probably do need to spend a little less time on the internet... Still, this one really makes sense of the WOE 'amateur and non-amateur' construct (/affectation), uniting the fringe works of more well known players like Sharkey and James Thornbury (Canned Heat) with some truly obscuro discoveries. If their origins are diffuse, then their concerns are at least broadly similar: protest & activism, evangelism and love are recurring themes - are there many other things worth singing about? Probably (let's not limit the human experience), but certainly not for those assembled here, all 17 artists seemingly united by a shared pursuit of secret passions, religious epiphanies and personal truths. Outside of its commercial context, isn't that what folk exists for? What's always best about this kind of private press, off-brand stuff is how it's skewed just so slightly to one side - a melody almost like one you already know but not quite; an imperfect voice taking a risk; the intimacy of compromised recording practices; the confluence of various idioms (folk, gospel, bedroom soul, psych, garage band pop++), and so forth. Just people out there giving it their best in pursuit of probably little more than the feeling itself. It's an inspiring endeavour - dance if you wanna dance, please brother take a chance, go whichever way you wanna go.
