Trembling Bells: Carbeth

Trembling Bells is an assemblage of Scots performing souped-up versions of traditional folk songs. They bring to mind giddy psychedelic peasants turning cartwheels on the moor. Singing duties rotate, but Lavinia Blackwall’s full-bodied soprano is the most prominent. Given the style of the music I can’t decide if she sounds clownish or appropriate. “I Listed All the Velvet Lessons” starts the album with an archaic Scottish sound, which is pervasive throughout, even as more modern elements are added. In fact, it’s like the Trembling Bells are a Sixties throwback of a medieval, feudal throwback. Carbeth ends up a welcome anachronism.

Rating: * * *

Black Moth Super Rainbow: Eating Us

Suddenly I feel like dancing with these really soothing robots. It can only mean one thing: I’m listening to Black Moth Super Rainbow. On Eating Us, nothing of the natural world remains. Instead, the noises sound like electronic imitations of streams, birdsong, and the susurration of leaves. The singing is the surreal, feminine voice of the wind, digitized and blowing in bits. The band members all employ mysterious monikers (Tobacco, d.kyler, The Seven Fields of Aphelion, Father Hummingbird, etc.), perhaps to suggest, “Yes, this is weird, experimental stuff,” or perhaps to distance themselves as humans from the music they produce.

Rating: * * * *