Okay, here we go - we're about to start the deep plunge right here. It's probably a good thing we're all on lockdown with this virus thing right now so that we have the time for this. But before we take that plunge, let's just quickly remind ourselves of where we are in the Natural Snow Buildings discography.
In 2000, NSB self-released a cassette tape, Two Sides of a Horse, followed by their first release on a label, the post-rock album Ghost Folks (2003). In 2004, they self-released a second album, the two-CD The Winter Ray. Nothing was released in 2005, and then in 2006, they self-released the cult favorite, The Dance of the Moon and the Sun. Four albums over six years, for a total of six and a half .hours of music. That's what we've covered here so far.
And then, after another year off in 2007, they released a whopping 12 albums in 2008 alone, most of them their typical hour- to two-hour long marathons. Sixteen hours of music released that one year alone. That's a lot to take in. Fortunately, at least several of the albums can be grouped together, and all of the music was not necessarily recorded in 2008.
We'll start with the two-CD Sunlit Stone. Due to the cult following that was forming behind the self-released TDotMatS, a Cincinnati record label, Students of Decay, reissued the album on CD. As a promotion, they included Sunlit Stone, two additional CDs of material recorded in 2004 and 2005 during the TDofMatS sessions, as a pre-order bonus. The 2-CD. Sunlit Stone set totaled 2½ hours, the same duration as TDofMatS. Only 120 copies of Sunlit Stone were ever made, and it was only available as a TDofMatS pre-order bonus.
Actually (full disclosure), Students of Decay also included two additional EPs with the pre-order bonus as well, The Sundowner and The Moonraiser, for another 45 minutes of TDotMatS-period material, making the album a 6-CD box set. The Sundowner and The Moonraiser are technically discs 3 and 4 of the 6-CD set and the two CDs of Sunlit Stone are discs 5 and 6, but for reasons that will be apparent later we'll listen to Sunlit Stone first.
Like TDofMatS, one disc of Sunlit Stone was subtitled Moon and the other Sun. It can almost be argued that Sunlit Stone is sort of like a parallel-universe TDotMatS. The sound and feel are similar, both albums alternating between folkish vocals sung in near monotone as if in a cultist trance and extended drones that combine multiple layers into sometimes blissful, occasionally contemplative, often menacing universes. The songs pride themselves on their slow development, creating the impression of descending down through uncharted depths, past hidden cavities and chambers that you will never unsee once experienced. It would be a mistake to dismiss Sunlit Stone as merely an "outtakes" album, although it does contain an alternate, demo version of The Cursed Bell that frankly isn't as good as the version on TDotMatS.
The $200 copy of TDotMatS for sale online is the full 6-CD set including Sunlit Stone, but other than that, I have no idea where one could purchase a copy of the album today. Fortunately, it was uploaded to YouTube so you can stream the whole thing there in all its 2½-hour glory, or else look around for pirated files to download (which is what I did).
Here's the tracklist for the Moon disc (CD-1 or -5 depending on whether you're looking at Sunlit Stone as a standalone album or as part of the box set):
1. Sunlit Stones (3:55)
2. The Cursed Bell (1st Version) (3:51)
3. Falls Into the Otherworld (4:49)
4. An Isolated Place for Target Practice (14:27)
5. Drowned (1:42)
6. These Stories About After the Revolution (7:53)
7. Cloud Scroll (3:32)
8. Tlacloc Blacktransformer (8:10)
9. Witches All Around (14:04)
10. Moon Paddler (5:54)
11. Milky Way Skirt (8:09)
The two 14-minute drones (tracks 4 and 9) are both excellent. An Isolated Place for Target Practice has a very ethereal, spacey vibe to it, and is as close to ambient music as NSB gets. My favorite, Witches All Around, resembles Cut Joint Sinews & Divided Reincarnation from TDotMatS with its tribal-sounding percussion and exotic instrumentation before it resolves into one of their better vocal performances. Strings squeal, percussion rattles, and feedback hisses, and the track contains at least four different passages (a tribal drum circle, a cello drone, a mysterious folk song, and a Mideastern-sounding dance) as it evolves through its various incarnations.
The spoken words in These Stories About After the Revolution, another stand-out track, are from the book Moving by the poet Bernadette Mayer.
Tlaloc Blacktransformer references the Aztec god of rain, fertility, and water, and the Aztec theme is also represented on the gruesome cover drawing of an Aztec human sacrifice. I don't know if the full album or even the Moon disc is supposed to be Aztec themed or not, but song titles Drowned, Cloud Scroll, and Moon Paddler, not to mention Fall Into the Otherworld and even Milky Way Skirt, are evocative of the rain and water god. Tlaloc is usually depicted with goggle eyes and fangs. Although he was considered a beneficent giver of life and sustenance, he was also feared for his ability to send hail, thunder, and lightning, and for being the lord of the powerful element of water.
The track Tlaloc Blacktransformer itself is very cinematic and resembles the soundtrack for a horror or suspense movie; at times, I'm reminded of Popul Vuh's soundtracks for 1970s Werner Herzog films. NSB are known for their use of horror imagery and lyricism, and they definitely have a dark streak. With Sunlit Stone, we can add Aztec religion to the themes of witchcraft, Inuit legends, and low-budget horror films that run through their work.
The lesson here is that the sheer number of recordings released by NSB in 2008 is a little less intimidating if one considers three of them, the Sunlit Stone album and The Sundowner and The Moonraiser EPs, as part of the larger, The Dance of the Moon and the Sun from 2006. That leaves only 9 "new" albums for 2008, which is still a lot, granted, but as we'll see, some of those can also be grouped together into more manageable groups.
We'll go over CD-2 of Sunlit Stone, the Sun disc, next.
The lesson here is that the sheer number of recordings released by NSB in 2008 is a little less intimidating if one considers three of them, the Sunlit Stone album and The Sundowner and The Moonraiser EPs, as part of the larger, The Dance of the Moon and the Sun from 2006. That leaves only 9 "new" albums for 2008, which is still a lot, granted, but as we'll see, some of those can also be grouped together into more manageable groups.
We'll go over CD-2 of Sunlit Stone, the Sun disc, next.
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