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Larkin Grimm - Parplar
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americana-uk.com - David Cowling There's nothing grim about this collection Grimm opens this record like a hard to like acolyte of Devendra Banhart but she soon outstrips him, she passes and presses all manner of genres squeezing the ordinary to extract the magical. Her voice swoops, seduces, screeches, soothes, charms and at times her tongue twists through your auditory canal and tickles your brain. "Blond and Golden John" twitters and chimes, the relaxed sensual "Dominican Rum" has playful waves of barrelhouse piano at odds with the lyrics that at one point describe the pus emanating from her uterus (did I mention she¹s earthy too). The breadth of her experience from hippy commune to Yale, Guatemala, the Appalachian Mountains and Thailand leeches into the songs, twisting them always away from the mundane and towards the exotic, "Parplar" sounds like it was recorded in a rainforest where displaced New Orleans jazzmen are recuperating. Oriental influences splash but don¹t swamp - "My Justine" it sounds like Chinese folk music being played over a Steve Reich small group piece and it is compelling and strangely beautiful. Appalachia thrusts its mountainous head into "Fall On My Knees" a rubbery hoedown, speaking tongues and tape manipulation......
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Larkin Grimm - Parplar
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nomad - wearsthetrousers.comHighly recommendedInspired by 'the imaginational galaxy where orgasms come from, formed out of dreams of leggy, surgically enhanced blondes,' the new album from fiercely talented radical environmentalist Larkin Grimm is, even by her own standards, a pretty stellar collection of atmospheric, magical songs that consolidates the promising noise experiments of her previous albums. No fears of jumping the shark here, Parplar is the best thing Larkin's done to date. It's also 'a bit of a lesbian feminist album' that explores various themes of violence, sex and spirituality and takes some of its inspiration from the likes of Britney Spears, Lindsay Lohan and Amy Winehouse. 'Becoming one with the human race is difficult,' writes Larkin on her blog, 'but fortunately I've been inspired by the struggles of a lot of other women from my generation.' Parplar is the 26 year old itinerant's first release on Michael Gira's hallowed Young God Records home of Wears The Trousers heroine Lisa Germano and was trimmed down from a potential 50 songs written during 'a near-manic tidal wave of creative energy'. ŒDominican Rum' is a disturbing portrait of a beautiful, wrathful woman literally coming apart in 'the ugly world of men'.......
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Larkin Grimm / Parplar
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Mojo Magazine (UK) | Sophie Harris Spooky folkster on an unconventional journey As excellent as Michael Gira's Young God label is, you may be wondering when exactly this "weirde folk" well will run dry. On the basis of this record from 26 year old songstress Grimm, not any time soon. Born into a cult and raised in a commune in the Appalachians, Grimm won a scholarship to study art at Yale (where she was a member of Dirty Projectors) before breaking off to do her own thing - and here it is. There are spindly, twitchy folk songs, which sound almost like spells, but Grimm's velvety voice makes it a deliciously sensual trip too. Co-produced by Gira, these intimate arrangements feel like you could be sitting in the same room as Grimm and co. Whether you'd want to be is another question altogether....
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Larkin Grimm - Parplar
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NED RAGGETT - OCWeeklyThis isn't winsome never-neverland, but a cascade of fractured emotions and wit. Some artists emerge fully formed from the gate; others have to wait and see how their talents evolve. For some years now, Larkin Grimm, a singer/guitarist raised mostly in Appalachian Georgia who now roams about the country, has worked somewhere between those two descriptions: a compelling musician who has yet to make her breakthrough. This was partly due to her albums, which were quite enjoyable and showcased her obvious love and knowledge of various folk traditions with a sweeping theatricality and humor that seemed more Lene Lovich than Linda Thompson, but never quite equaled the sheer power of her live performances. Her set at the 2006 Terrastock festival in Rhode Island is still talked about with awe‹and rightly so. Grimm's debut for Michael Gira's Young God label redresses this balance in full. Totaling 15 songs, Parplar, recorded with the assistance of Gira and a number of guest performers, is still straight-up Grimm, with the opening song's beautifully performed first lyric, 'Who told you you're going to be all right?/They were wrong,' setting the unsettled tone. This isn't winsome never-neverland, but a cascade of fractured emotions......
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LARKIN GRIMM - Parplar
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By JT | Other Music NYC / Newsletter Larkin Grimm's previous album, The Last Tree, was a genuine surprise -- it appeared without warning from the Secret Eye label and courted my attention with its careful blend of traditional folk and ambient abstraction. It was an album begging to be heard by more than the select few bespectacled indie buyers and their privileged circle of sycophants, so it comes as no shock that a larger label has snapped her up for this third outing. That the label is Michael Gira's Young God gives even more credibility to her cause. Here is a character who doesn't do things lightly and has also opted to co-produce, assuring that all Larkin's music achieves the fidelity it sometimes required. You see the songs were always a latent force in her music; they might have been shrouded in noise and abstraction at times, but her unique, powerful voice carried genuine old-tyme songs, something which is explored in even more depth on Parplar. There are sure to be those of us who lament the loss of Larkin's more experimental side, but her mischievous edge is still present, just tamed slightly to allow those soul-grabbing songs to......