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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......
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Larkin Grimm: Parplar
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Andrew Carver | Pennyblackmusic.com Grimm's motivating spirit comes from a dark, strange placeLarkin Grimm is another find by Swans/Angels of Light/Young Gods records main man Michael Gira. 'Parplar' is her third album after a pair for the Secret Eye label that stretch out the folk music idiom to bleak and unusual places. Unlike Akron/Family and Devendra Banhart, Gira's other notable discoveries, but much like the man himself, Grimm's motivating spirit comes from a dark, strange place. Sometimes morose, sometimes jovial, the music is heavily repetitious, as are the lyrics, but the effect is more meditative than tedious. It owes a heavy debt to the 'old weird America' documented on Harry Smith's 'Anthology of American Music'. In addition to Grimm's own fingerpicking, a host of Brooklyn musicians help out, including some of Angels of Light and Old Time Relijun. Grimm stakes out a fair piece of her ground on the first two numbers. As 'Parplar' begins, Grimm stretches out the question "Who told you you're going to be all right?" to a slow crawl over a descending three-note riff, while mournful violins stretch out below her bitter intonation of the song's title: "They were wrong." The brisk gallop of 'Ride That......
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Larkin Grimm - Parplar
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JAY DIAMOND | hexedjournal.comexquisite offering of haunted dittiesWhen a record comes to my attention created by an artist who according to the press release "was born in a Memphis, TN commune and grew up in Dahlonega, Georgia in the foothills of the Appalachians with a family of singers and fiddlers." I usually think that this is either B.S. or it's a new find by Michael Gira for his Young God stable of kooky pal's. In the case of Larkin Grimm, the above story is part of her biography and has indeed put out her first record on Gira's fine imprint. Where Grimm has been and what she has seen as a person is of little consequence to me, but upon 2 straight listens to this album, I am quick to believe that she has taken with her the experiences that have shaped her as a person and created this exquisite offering of haunted ditties titled Parplar. To give a visual, the fifteen songs contained on this LP could very well be the musical accompaniment to a series of cartoons drawn up by Edward Gorey, or possibly the soundtrack to Tom Waits dreams. That being said, finding her place within the......
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Larkin Grimm: Parplar Review
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Dennis Cook | jambase.com Curioser and curioser. Opening out like a celestial telescope and retracting into spaces of cavernous privacy and pecking glossolalia... Larkin Grimm isn't your typical girly singer-songwriter. The child of hippies once part of the Holy Order of MANS and a rambler that prefers to sleep outdoors in the warm months, Larkin joins the other inspired iconoclasts on Michal Gira's Young God Records (Akron/Family, Fire On Fire, Devendra Banhart, The Angels of Light). Swinging between plush furred purrs and tangy trippiness, Grimm's Parplar (arriving October 28) is a remarkable introduction to remarkable new talent. Shoehorned with inspired fingerpicking and Grimm's crazily elastic voice, Parplar contains an almost willful diversity, shrieks and experiments dueling with bed-sit intimates worthy of the great ladies of the canyon. While Grimm has been making music for a few years both as a member of Dirty Projectors and her own free-form improvisations this set crystallizes her talents and vision, which can be a little scattershot over the course of 40 minutes but remains ever fascinating and often downright intoxicating. Opener "They Were Wrong" is the slow curling smile that draws you in, a today child of a sound birthed by Bridget......
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New Larkin Grimm - Ride That Cyclone - Review
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Brandon | stereogum.comShe has a powerfully assured voice... Larkin Grimm was raised in Memphis in The Holy Order Of MANS until the cult disbanded and her parents relocated with her to the Blue Ridge Mountains in Georgia. We're told she's itinerant these days, spending the warmer months living outdoors in the woods, but she hunkered down in NYC earlier this summer (at least for the time being). I mention her travels, because the propulsive, galloping "Ride That Cyclone" comes off like the march of restless body. Somehow, it also ushers in a fall breeze. (It feels like Grimm wrote and recorded the new record in the most autumnal conditions possible -- changing leaves, colder breezes, early-season wood fires). "Ride That Cyclone"'s the second track on Parplar, her first album for Michael Gira's Young God (he co-produced the collection with Grimm, too, and encouraged her and her work early on). She has a powerfully assured voice, which she compliments with acoustic guitar, banjo, dulcimer, Chinese harp, an old keyboard. Listen: Larkin Grimm - "Ride That Cyclone" (MP3) This is clearly the work of more than one person. She's also backed by labelmates Fire On Fire, who add double bass, accordion, banjo,......