Villages
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Villages

Asheville, North Carolina, United States | INDIE

Asheville, North Carolina, United States | INDIE
Band Alternative Avant-garde

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"Villages, “Grey East” tape"

Ah Villages, now here’s a tape that I can really get into. I had never heard of this artist before, but boy am I glad that this showed up on my doorstep! You may have heard that it takes a village to raise a child, but it takes Villages to raise one helluva release. Grey East comes to us from soundscaping visioneer Ross Gentry of Asheville, NC. I’ve heard that this is for the long, dark, cold nights of winter, but I don’t hear anything quite so bleak here. To me, these haunting drones are just for quiet moments, reflective solitude, and coherent dreaming. There’s nothing inherently depressing or sinister about this release, so I have trouble understanding why other reviewers would have described it that way. I guess each review divulges autobiographical information by describing what things sound like to them. Perhaps because it’s a sunny day on an October afternoon and I don’t have anywhere I need to be or anything I have to do right now that I hear something that’s a bit less downcast. However, what I do hear is a charming disposition, a beautiful existence, and an entrancing contemplation behind these seven compositions. These are just some really excellent pieces of drone. Most of them have a subtle presence that could pull me in regardless of what mood I was in. But I remember one track in particular, which I think was the second one on Side B, and that had a cool Barn Owl/Elm style guitar loop over the drone that just hit the spot for this Evan Caminiti/Jon Porras fan. All I can say is that this first cassette release for Villages has left me satisfied and smiling and I will be on the lookout for more from him. Released on solid grey pro-dubbed tapes with green imprint in an edition of 100. The art is by Grant and Rachel Evans. Truly a release you can’t miss. -- Dave Miller - Foxy Digitalis


Discography

Theories of Ageing (Unreleased, 2012)
The Spilling Past (Cassette, Bathetic Records, 2012)
Stockholm (Cassette, Diatom Bath, 2011)
The Grey East (Cassette, Hooker Vision, 2011)
The Last Whole Earth (2xLP, Harvest Recordings, 2010)

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Bio

Villages has long played a great role in the heart of the Asheville, North Carolina Drone scene. He presents carefully performed and processed acoustic instrumentation, delicately married to dense and spectral drone.