Sunlit Stone (Natural Snow Buildings) - Part 2

And he led her through the fields and through the valleys so deep
'Til at length lovely Mary began for to weep
"Willie, handsome Willie, you've led me astray
Through the fields and the valleys, my life to betray."

We're now on the second CD, disc 2 titled Sun, of Natural Snow Building's 2008 Sunlit Stones.  Like Moon, the first CD of the set, Sun contains songs recorded by NSB during the period of 2004-2005 while they were producing their classic The Dance of the Moon and the Sun.  Here's the Sun track list:

1. Lucifer Morning Star (2:27)
2. Kill To Please (7:18)
3. Dreaming Place (6:44)
4. Grey Skies (2:43)
5. Bloodletting (18:02)
6. Willy Brown (3:46)
7. Stay Behind to Ruin the Underworld (3:50)
8. The Satellites (5:06)
9. A Net to Lift the Room (4:31)
10. Dead Man Eyes (2:45)
11. Hunted Was My Brother (11:10)
12. You're Not Even Back (2:34)
13. We Don't Want You There Anymore (5:05)

Just like Moon, Sun contains two long tracks, Bloodletting (track 5) and Hunted Was My Brother (track 11).  Bloodletting meanders a bit too much for my personal liking and takes too long to resolve, although you may feel otherwise.  Personally, my favorite track on this CD is Hunted Was My Brother (above), another long, tribal, drum-circle drone similar to Witches All Around on the Moon disc.  I couldn't find the song on YouTube, Bandcamp, Soundcloud or Spotify (or Amazon and iTunes either, for that matter).  You can stream the entire 2½-hour Sunlit Stone album here, but to fill the void on the internet for Hunted Was My Brother, I uploaded a copy myself (above - see what I do for you?).  

"It's true what you say to me, it's just the truth you say
For late, late last night I was a-digging your grave
Your grave that is open, and spade standing by
And down in the grave your fair body must lie."

Like many NSB compositions, Kill To Please (below - not my upload) goes through several movements and passages before it's complete.  As in the case of many NSB tracks, transitions within single songs on this album are more pronounced and noticeable than transitions between songs.  Kill To Please starts with a string ensemble but soon dissolves into the white noise of static before emerging again as a quiet study for guitar.  Eventually, the ambient sounds make room for a quiet song backed by a shimmering, echo-laden guitar.  

And he stabbed her, he stabbed her, 'til the red blood did flow
And into the grave her fair body he did throw
And he's buried her so neatly and he's covered her so sound
Not thinking this murder would ever be found.

Overall, the Sun disc doesn't seem to have the Aztec references found on the Moon disc.  However, among the other horror themes in the NSB universe are Appalachian ghost and witch stories; 2004's TDotMatS had an instrumental track titled Mary Brown named for a character in The Blair Witch Project.  Willy Brown on Sunlit Stone is a murder ballad and ghost story that furthers the tale of Mary, sung in duet in a fairly straightforward manner without a bridge or instrumental break.  The titular Willy lures the pregnant Mary out to a remote countryside locations, kills her, and buries her body in a grave he had dug the night before. But before he can return to town, her avenging ghost appears and tears him into pieces.     

But as he was a-going and turning around
He spied lovely Mary, she was dressed all in brown
And she's snatched at him, and she's cut him, and she's tore him in three
Saying,"That's for the murder of my baby and me!"

And there you have it - another 2½ hours of drone and psychedelic horror folk from Natural Snow Buildings, or if you will, a second whole helping of TDotMatS.  Along with Two Sides of a Horse, Ghost Folks, The Winter Ray and TDotMatS, we're now about 8 hours into the NSB discography.

Only 42 hours more left to go.