There’s a dank haze that emanates from James McKeown’s latest outing as Hawksmoor. After a couple immense and Komische/Berlin School-heavy records with the great Soul Jazz Records -plus an amazing collaboration with Ivan The Tolerable- Hawksmoor has returned to the crypt of Library of the Occult for Yclept Thorn. This is no ordinary electronic folk horror outing. Read below and see for yourself.
“Hark, still thy tongue! Lo! this music thou hearest hath been wrought through thee cunning contrivances born of a mortal mind. Employed were many dark enchantments and magicks. A bewitched device, thee EP-1320, voyaged o’er stormy seas from thee distant Nordic realms, passing from the hands of eldritch wizards into thee grasp of a learned Philosopher, Occultist, Alchemist, and master of dreadly sonic rites, who amongst mortals is known by thee name of James McKeown.” –Library of the Occult Records
The sound here is expansive, droning, and has the feeling of being lost in some dense, wooded landscape. Eerie, contemplative, and buzzing with mysterious, pensive energy, Yclept Thorn has taken inspiration from the work McKeown did with Ivan The Tolerable, incorporating slow, oscillating drones into an almost hallucinogenic daze. An atmospheric folk music soundscape that opens the portal between idyllic pastures and dystopian landscapes.
The album opens aptly enough on title track “Yclept Thorn”, a droning and slow-moving track that spreads like low fog on a fall morning. Electronics, tribal rhythm, and an overall feeling of dread permeates the scene here. “Ockham” brings quaint melodies and a feeling of sunshine hitting a mostly wooded path. “Mappi Mundi” with its tick tock rhythm paints impending doom through moody electronics, giving the song an organic eeriness.
Library of the Occult describes these songs as “dark ballads”, and I couldn’t agree more. I hear touches of Bobby Krlic’s work as both The Haxan Cloak, as well as his score for the great Midsommar. And the hallucinogenic drones of LOTO labelmates Horned Relic Self’s Column of Shadow. “Lingulaca”, “Vorigern”, and album closer “Eudoxus Llull” buzz in supernatural hums and existential dread, with synthesis coalescing with instrumentation to transport the listener to this folk horror landscape McKeown has built for us.
Once again McKeown and Hawksmoor make a transformative, moody sound world with Yclept Thorn. Taking folk music and turning it inside out into a hazy, psychedelic fever dream.
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