Old Saw / The Wringing Cloth / Lobby Art Editions

The Wringing Cloth is the fourth and final long-player from the New England based Old Saw. Led by Henry Birdsey the players on this record number 8 in total, and together they make an, I suppose, experimental music that hits like Robbie Basho meeting Cale, Conrad, MacLise, Young and Zazeela’s Day Of Niagara. A blurring of hypnotic drones, folk and Americana, featuring banjo, fiddle, harmonium and pedal steel. Other reference points would be Set Fire To Flames, Raymond Richards’ The Lost Art Of Wandering, and God Speed You Black Emperor. With the assembled strings approximating an acoustic Blue Grass rendition of Steve Reich’s counterpoint and minimalism. Their flow mimicking and Appalachian mountain stream. On the longer pieces, suggestions of traditional songs and melodies threaten to break through. The beautiful Lacustrina, for example, had me thinking I could hear the picking riffing on Beck’s take of Daniel Johnston’s True Love Will Find You In The End. As if it were an extended,…