SoundTrack: Appalachian-inspired releases
by Alli Marshall, Mountain Xpress
Mar 2009
“This may be to weird for Asheville,” writes potpie, a former New Orleans-based “High Priest of drone.” After relocating to Western N.C. last year, the musician applied electronica to mountain sounds, producing the two-part disc Appalachia. The first song is a 10-minute sampling of bluegrass recordings that falls between a radio station fading in and out and the soundtrack to a hoe-down played in halting reverse. Simultaneously jarring and entertaining, the track takes on a meditative quality. More restful is the second number, “Descending Moonshine,” performed on a live sine wave generator. It’s like bluegrass dub, a stripped-down take on hill music reduced to its core essence. There’s a futuristic-Kitaro feel to the track, which hints at spacey, bouncing dulcimers and banjos while also calling to mind the alchemic bubbling and distilling of corn liquor. Gorgeously odd.
http://www.mountainx.com/ae/2007/031809appalachian_inspired_releases/