--Ada Wofford
----Released 8 August 2020
Alright, picture this. You're in the middle-of-nowhere, Nevada. As the sun sinks in the west its light splashes against the landscape, painting its watercolors on the jagged, ancient rocks and swirling, steaming sands. You lick the dust from your lips and take another swig of water just as the peyote begins to take hold and you wonder where your friends went, leaving you alone in the vast expanse of evening.
That's pretty much how the debut EP from 49 Burning Condors left me feeling. It's cinematic, it's thematic, it's melodic, catchy, moving, and it sounds fucking HUGE. I keep thinking about the name and what it could mean, and I'm wondering if burning 49 condors is the sacrifice one must make to the music gods to get so damn talented. I don't usually just outright gush in my reviews but seriously, this album is a clinic.
The band is unique in its set up, comprised of vocals, guitar, violin, bass, and drums. On any given track the guitar is either an acoustic or steel guitar and is often times played with a slide. The violin playing is incredible and extremely sophisticated in how its arranged, never dominating the track and never feeling forced. I've heard so many songs that don't need a violin, but there's a violinist in the band, so they squeeze them in to give them something to do—That's not the case on Truths and Roses, every note is meaningful.
The drumming is just as tasteful, never settling into a full-kit rock groove that makes zero sense (another thing I've often heard). Instead, the drums function more as accents rather than as an anchor holding down the track. Bombastic bass and toms mimic the many boots one imagines would be stomping around whatever magical campfire this music would be performed at, and the snare and cymbals function almost as a lead instruments at times, carving out space and leading the charge.
The standout moment for me is in the track "Slow," in which the rhythm section cuts in and out amongst a skittering staccato violin, while the slide guitar stubbornly continues to dance about within the pauses. There's so much going on and yet it never feels fussy, forced, or overly complicated. It's absolutely thrilling to listen to.
When I reached out to the band about the recording process and the gear they used, they had this to say:
Truths and Roses was recorded at Miner Street Recordings in Philadelphia, PA with our sound engineer Matt Poirier. Other notable bands who have recorded there are The War on Drugs, Sharon Van Etton, and Kurt Vile.
We really wanted a sound that was reminiscent of that Delta blues twang mixed with beautiful vocal lines and melodies akin to Fleetwood Mac and Karen Elson. To achieve this, we used mainly acoustic instruments, taking the audio from both the amp and directly from the guitars. Likewise, for the violin tracking, we used both an acoustic violin and an electronic violin to add layering and depth to the tracks, giving it an almost orchestral feel to the backing ambiance. This can be heard best during the distorted slide solo section on "Rosaleen," where the violin swells with the twang guitar to the full crescendo. For piano backing, we used the Fender Mark IV Rhodes piano in the studio as another layering tool.
The tracks were first recorded to analog tape before being ported into an MCI JH-440 console for mixing, giving it a more vintage tone which we were originally looking for. A lot of the ambient layering work was done using stacks of multiple guitar pedals, which we manipulated physically in the studio to give it a real dynamic tone, as opposed to using digital synths.
Our original pitch was to keep a warm, consistent analog tone to the project, which we achieved with great help from Matt. Music isn’t perfect, nor should it ever be. The twangs and nicks of the guitar and the breath in the vocals is something that we wanted to not only capture but celebrate.
The production on this record is absolutely stunning. I'm a huge lo-fi nerd, but I love the way 49 Burning Condors insisted on pulling from both the analog world and the digital world to produce an album with such classic yet modern tones. If you're a fan of slick folk-rock, packed with imagery and characters, you have to check out Truth and Roses. Purchase via BandCamp and listen to "Slow" below"
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