AMO1 REVIEWS!!

Here's the first 3 reviews of the new A Minority of One CD Release:

-A Minority Of One – Bathe In Fiery Answer CD
(Autumn Wind Productions)

Reviewed by Simon Collins of Judas Kiss: http://www.judaskissmagazine.co.uk/

Bathe In Fiery Answer is the debut album from the Portland-based group A Minority Of One (AMO1 hereafter). The group consists of Jason Hovatter Craban (also of Waldteufel), Markus Wolff (also of Waldteufel and L’Acéphale), Arrowyn Craban (also the editor of Hex magazine), Jason O’Neill-Butler, and James Woodhead (also of Blood Of The Black Owl, The Elemental Chrysalis and At The Head Of The Woods). There are also a couple of guest appearances, from the ubiquitous John Murphy (Death In June, SPK, KnifeLadder, Shining Vril, Naevus etc.) and also Jason and Arrowyn’s daughter, Manzanita.

Four of the tracks from Bathe In Fiery Answer were previously released as a cassette by French label Tavern Keben in an edition of a mere 66 copies, but for most people, this will be the first opportunity to hear anything from AMO1 since ‘Die Nachtschar’, their contribution to the superlative Wilde Jäger compilation released by the Austrian label Percht in 2007. This CD version of Bathe In Fiery Answer is extensively reworked and expanded, with the album now consisting of nine tracks and weighing in at a substantial 67 minutes of playing time.

The album opens with ‘Wave Rolls’, a lengthy a cappella arrangement of male harmony vocals. Jason Craban and Markus Wolff provide a baritone foundation in a musical round, with Jason O’Neill Butler singing both tenor and alto over the top. There’s an unsurprising similarity to Waldteufel here, since that band’s sound is also heavily based on Markus Wolff’s deep, solemn vocals.

‘Cambry (Hart Of The Chyld)’ is the album’s longest track, at nearly 14 minutes. Its opening blends field recordings of birdsong, a dog panting and growling, and rhythmic mechanical clicks and creaks, with orchestral brass, something like a pack of hounds and huntsmen assembling. This then develops into a tribal percussion workout, with bells, chimes and an intriguing assortment of found sounds as well as plain old drums. The overall effect is a bit like Markus Wolff’s previous band Crash Worship, though there’s also a similarity to early Psychic TV, especially the Cold Dark Matter album, and ritual ambient projects such as Psychonaut 75, Hati and Terroritmo. With ‘Cambry’ lasting as long as it does, it’s possible to get really immersed in its mesmerising rhythmic groove.

‘Full Spectrum Dominance’ is very different again. This is basically drone-based dark ambient, with chiding vocals from Manzanita Craban lending an eerie yet playful feel. I was again reminded of Psychic TV, and Caresse P-Orridge’s various vocal contributions to songs like ‘Are You Experienced?’ and ‘Caresse Song’. In the background, banshee-like wails skitter across the channels.

‘Gnawer From Beneath’ features John Murphy, with this track, like ‘Cambry’, containing a wide variety of found sounds and odd home-made instruments, including a contraption called a ‘cymbal spinner’, which consist of a cracked cymbal turned by a motor. Maybe it’s only the power of suggestion, knowing that John Murphy is on this track, but this really does sound like John’s solo project Shining Vril to me, and I think I’d have thought this even if I didn’t know he was playing on this track. The rhythmic, organic ambient sounds are augmented by wordless, moaning vocal chants.

The next track, ‘Lungs’, is the first of a couple of cover versions on Bathe In Fiery Answer. This song was written by the country singer Townes Van Zandt, and I haven’t heard the original, but I’m willing to bet that it doesn’t sound much like this rendition, in which the lyrics are recited in a slow monotone over a backdrop of reverberating twangs, drones and metal percussion. ‘Breath’ is the second part of ‘Lungs’, and if anything is even more bizarre, with deep gargling croaks and cut-up vocal loops taking us into the far-out experimental realms inhabited by creatures like Captain Beefheart and Nurse With Wound.

This is followed by ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, a version of the Beatles song. The original version of ‘Tomorrow Never Knows’, which appears on the 1966 album Revolver, is one of my favourite Beatles songs – you can keep ‘Hey Jude’ and ‘Eleanor Rigby’, I’ve always preferred the heavier, more psychedelic stuff, like this song and ‘Helter Skelter’. AMO1’s rendition leaves the lyrics pretty much intact, but accompanies them with a dense concatenation of clattering glass and metal. This is definitely one of the highlights of the album for me.

‘Peat Fire Flame’ is a traditional ‘tramping song’ introduced to Jason Craban by the folk singer Andrew King, and this is probably the most orthodox piece of music on the album, with chanted folk vocals accompanied by accordion, clarinet and dulcimer.

The album’s closing track, ‘She’, also borrows from The Beatles, specifically the bassline to ‘She’s So Heavy’, but it’s not so much a cover version as an improvisation on a theme, with a subdued, jazzy feel, almost like incidental music from some sleazy 70s Euro-horror film by someone like Jess Franco, and featuring some cool acid-rock guitar work from James Woodhead, as well as campy witch-rock vocals from Arrowyn Craban.

The original cassette edition of Bathe In Fiery Answer came packaged in a card case encrusted with bits of moss and bark to enhance its loamy forest resonances, but buyers of the 1000-copy CD edition have to settle for a digipack sleeve with vividly verdant photography of moss-covered crazy paving. The sleeve contains an insert containing very detailed and informative notes by Jason Craban, explaining the origins and development of every track, as well as the overall concept for the album:

‘This collection of recordings is an exploration of decline and sickness, compost and collapse. Facing my own sickness and my relationship to that of close friends and family members. Contained here is the story of Nidhögg, who undermines and fells the World Tree gnawing at its roots; exposing the rot of every choice made against our higher values and better intentions.’

Jason Craban is also a skilled leatherworker, and the album is available in a deluxe leather-bound edition limited to 100 copies, as well as the standard digipack edition.

Bathe In Fiery Answer is obviously going to be of considerable interest to fans of Waldteufel and L’Acéphale (although it sounds a lot more like the former than the latter), but it’s also highly recommended for people who are into the sound and aesthetic associated with the Glass Throat Recordings label (there’s that direct connection to Blood Of The Black Owl, of course, and AMO1 also seem to manifest a similar tribalistic/shamanic atmosphere to bands like Ruhr Hunter and Fearthainne), In Gowan Ring, Fauna, and the Cascadian scene in general. Don’t come to this album expecting neo-folk, though – it’s much more unorthodox and experimental than that. Keep an open mind, though, and you may just find yourself beguiled by AMO1’s eccentric offering.

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REVIEW BY Markus Eriksson of The Shadows Commence: http://theshadowscommence.com/index.html


Portland presents ”Bathe in Fiery Answer”, the first official CD release from the mighty collective A MINORITY OF ONE, consisting of Jason Craban, Markus Wolff, Arrowyn Craban, Jason O’Neill-Butler, and James Woodhead.
Mr. Craban is the core. Kind of. I think this started as his own project, but grew. Markus Wolff, I love your surname, is of course known from his great work in WALDTEUFEL.
Arrowyn is known to me as she who runs the Hex Magazine website. O’Neill-Butler has his solo project that seems very interesting and James Woodhead is the second half of THE ELEMENTAL CHRYSALIS, and also he has a solo project, AT THE HEAD OF THE WOODS, reviewed some months ago.
It’s a great collective of strong personalities, and a huge source of influences and inspiration. If this isn’t enough, we also get some guest appearances from John Murphy (DEATH IN JUNE, SPK, KNIFELADDER) and also Craban’s daughter Manzanita.
”Bathe in Fiery Answer” was previously released as a cassette but technology and time chased the band down and forced them to press these tracks on a compact disc for the young generation to explore. This is all thanks to Autumn Wind Productions.
The album consists of 9 tracks. I won’t ever refer to them as music because this is not music. In A MINORITY OF ONE, the gentlemen and gentlewomen step into their roles as artists. Sound artists. While many tracks could possibly be labeled as organic ambient, most of them is beyond that. There are some singing but most of the vocals here are chants and grunts, manipulated beyond recognition and looped in eternity. Other sounds include horns, bells, animals, drums, other percussion things, clicks, scratches, thundering, and well, possibly anything that can and will make a sound if you bang it or drop it.
It takes me about 10 seconds before I’m totally aware of what’s happening and before I’m stuck in this weird existence in this weird universe we are thrown into. The first track is pretty much a deep vocal loop that chases me in circles for a couple of minutes before a baritone enters and does something really nice.
The second track is a cacophony of horns and percussion and a really nice cacophony if you ask me! The later half turns the tempo down a bit and peels most sound of, leaving a brooding voice.
”Full Spectrum Dominance” is the track that features Manzanita, an experiment that goes from really haunting to playful to haunting to playful again, and the screams of this child is really icening.
”Gnawer from Beneath” is like the center of the album. The booklet speaks of Nidhögg, who gnaw the roots of the world-three in symbolic ways and this ought to be influenced by that tale. Heavy drum rolls and scary machinery that panorates from left to right, and rocks me into a sweaty sleep.

”Lungs” is a soulful monologue, lyrics written by and borrowed from TOWNES VAN ZANDT, over a pretty calm soundscape consisting of echoed clicks and bowls, maybe? There’s also a nice, buzzing drone in the very back of the sound that I fancy, would like to hear it more prominent. This is one out of two surprising ”covers” on this disc, the second one will follow directly after ”Breath” that is, according to the booklet, the second half of ”Lungs”, and probably the weirdest thing I have ever heard. After a long intro that sounds like a huge burp, several voices pop up from nowhere, chopped to pieces and clued back together reversed. It’s really hard to concentrate on this one, but it's also fascinating how much that can be done with such simple methods. I like this one a lot. And now when it’s over, it’s time for the second cover I told you about. ”Tomorrow Never Knows”, written by John Lennon and recorded by some pop orchestra called THE BEATLES some dozens of years ago. Of course, the only thing this version has in common with the original is the lyrics. The song gets a bell-and-drone-treatment, and I have never ever heard a BEATLES song this way before.

”Peat Fire Flame” is a traditional tramping song, that sound pretty native American with those chants and it’s probably the closest thing to music on this album, with a nice folk melody on flutes, toots, and drum. The booklet mentions ANDREW KING as he who introduced the song to Craban.

The final track here is called ”She” and borrows once again from THE BEATLES, this time it's the bass line from "She's so Heavy", and it also has some nice electric guitar moods, probably performed by mr. Woodhead; it sound a bit like that A THE HEAD OF THE WOODS album. There is some proper singing as well, from mrs. Craban. And I think it's a nice track to close this album with. And after it's over, I exhaust a bit, before battling it again. This is simply phenomenal, monumental and nothing near anything I've ever heard before. It's so strange and at the same time so genuine and irresistible.

The CD comes in a delicious digipak with a booklet that, you might already figured it out after my many references, hold some very nice information about each and every track. I like that. It gives a personal feeling. Like this wasn't personal enough already?

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REVIEW BY JEFF COLWELL OF Plaugue Haus: http://plaguehaus.com/


Tavarn Keben : 2007 / Autumn Wind Productions : 2009
Format : C28 Cassette / CD

Here’s an enigmatic one I’ve been meaning to review for some time now. The group consist of members of Waldteufel and l'Acéphale but sound nothing like either. Well, anything Markus Wolff is involved in tends to carry his blessed imprint and this is no different. Together with Arrowyn & Jason H. Craban, and Jason O'Neil Butler, these Northwestern pagans create a celebration of nature and camaraderie.

To call this release “neo-folk” would also be doing it a disservice. I’m really not sure what to file this under other than “experimental”. Organic sounds merge and mix with cut-up vocal loops, chimes, bells, nature noise, tonal grunts, horns, unidentifiable stringed instruments... it’s everything along with the kitchen sink that’s been stripped bare, turned upside down and used for some shamanic drumming. Ritual Forest Music.

I love this tape just because it’s so out of the normal realm of anything I’ve ever heard and believe me, I’ve listened to some weird shit. But this isn’t something quirky for the sake of being strange. There’s a definite structure to the songs and their just good. Strap on the headphones, go to your nearest park, woods, front yard, lie down in the grass and be transported. This is definite outdoor music, or it will at the very least bring the outside in.

This 30 minute cassette features barely recognizable covers of The Beatles “Tomorrow Never Knows” and Townes Van Zandt’s “Lungs”. Limited to a mere 66 copies and beautifully packaged in a cardboard case that included bits of mossy bark, better do your best to hunt this one down.

UPDATE: In 2009 this wonderful tape got an overhaul courtesy of AWP. In addition to the tracks on the original cassette, there’s five new tracks. “Wave Rolls” is an incredible a cappella number featuring deep bass vocals and lilting tenor accompaniment. I can imagine the crew of an 18th century tall ship chanting one just like it. “Full Spectrum Dominance” would be at home on any Dark Ambient release, but features guest vocals by the Craban’s daughter making the track eerie as well as playful. Next is a track that also appeared on last years Live Collection CDr, “Gnawer From Beneath”. It reminds me of being in the hold of sea faring vessel as the wood creaks and groans. It also features the cymbal spinner. Browse around the AMO1 websites for some pics of that amazing contraption. Track no. 8 entitled “Peat Fire Flame” appeared on the live disc as well. It’s a cover of a traditional “tramping song”. It’s another incredible track that taps into the volkish soul with the “oh oh oh” chorus, woodwind instruments and field recordings. It’s one of my favorites on the CD release. Rounding out the new tracks is “She”, a reworking of the Beatles “She’s So Heavy” that will indeed blow your mind.

So if you missed out on the very limited cassette release, this will be a chance to right that wrong. If you were lucky enough to land one, the additional tracks make it more than worth your time and cash. The insert with the notes on each song is a welcomed addition as well. The digipak uses the same cover art as the original tape, but I strongly suggest picking up the special edition that features a leather cover handmade by Jason Craban himself. The release was pressed at 1000 copies, but the special editions are limited to 100. Highly recommended!!!

Website: myspace.com/aminorityofone