Locust Land Bill MacKay SKU: DC876 Barcode: 0781484087618 22.00 £22.00 Genre: Folk Label: Drag City Released Date: 24th May 2024 Buying Format: 1LP Forthcoming Pre Order Add to your Wishlist Description Product Info Bill MacKay and Drag City are delirious with pride to announce the discovery of a new territory: ‘Locust Land’, a record which seeks to reflect the nerve-shredding consciousness run amok in our world today – and somehow allay it with sound. Bill’s music is a visceral crackling where it meets the air, and ‘Locust Land’ can’t help but reflect its era more than any other in his discography. It’s been five years since the release of ‘Fountain Fire’ – but in the interim, Bill has barely stopped moving, collaborating with artists across the spectrum, including cellist Katinka Kleijn, banjo player Nathan Bowles and keyboardist Cooper Crain. He’s also contributed to recordings by Steve Gunn, Ryley Walker, Bill Callahan and Bonnie Prince Billy (Blind Date Party), and Black Duck (on their self-titled record featuring Douglas McCombs and Charles Rumback). A restless energy and urgency is repeatedly felt – in the driving momentum of ‘Keeping in Time’, ‘Glow Drift’ and ‘When I Was Here’ – while a dogged persistence radiates from the tone colours and percussion of ‘Oh, Pearl’. Mating a dirge-like desolation with sparkling guitars, ‘Radiator’ adds darkness and depth. The sense of searching, displacement and longing in vocal tracks ‘Keeping in Time’, ‘Half of You’ and ‘When I Was Here’ speak literally to the tumult of current vibrations. Within the arrangements, there’s also departure from previous norms – in addition to the brilliant guitar work for which he is known, Bill plays a variety of keyboards, from piano to organ to synth, extending his music with the available voicings, while enriching the sound field without abandoning his signature brevity. For fans of his singing, and following in the recent tradition of ‘Fountain Fire’ as well as his collaboration with Nathan Bowles, ‘Keys’, ‘Locust Land’ expresses with an increased vocal presence – and heightened engagement, with Bill’s words and melodies drawing us closer. On his previous solo recordings, Bill played every sound. Here, he has invited other illustrious Chicagoans to join him: Sam Wagster (The Father Costume, Mute Duo) plays bass on three songs, two of which feature the percussion playing of Mikel Patrick Avery (Natural Information Society, Jeff Parker). Additionally, Janet Beveridge Bean (Eleventh Dream Day, Freakwater) adds otherworldly vocal textures to the elegiac ‘Neil’s Field’. Whether played alone or with companions, this music projects the strength of a universal collective. Even with a piece that might earlier have passed for blissful pastorale, Bill displays some declamatory motives. The reverie which opens the album, ‘Phantasmic Fairy’, embodies both transcendent and desperate moods, with Bill’s ineffable slide guitar playing afloat, with organs and synths, in a dream state suffused with a sense of foreboding – a requiem, perhaps for the days of unencumbered bandwidth? On the other side of the album, the strength to continue to hope appears in the lifting melodicism / exoticism of the album closing title track, leaving the listener with the sense of having achieved a hard-won space – a place of personal contemplation and dissent, one that everyone on the planet deserves to visit every single day on earth. With cover art also by Bill MacKay (the third of his albums on Drag City to feature his work), ‘Locust Land’ stands as a thoroughly personal statement from Bill to everyone everywhere. Artist Bill MacKay Genre Folk Label Drag City Buying Options 1LP Format 1LP Condition New Country UK Track Listings Phantasmic Fairy Keeping In Time Glow Drift Half of You Oh Pearl Radiator When I Was Here Neil’s Field Locust Land Share this On Facebook On Twitter Via Email More from Bill MacKay and more from Folk View Product Quick View Bill MacKay Fountain Fire Rock And Pop | Drag City | 1LP Released 22nd March 2019 £18.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Bill MacKay Fountain Fire £18.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Drag City SKU: DC734 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 22nd March 2019 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Bill MacKay Esker Rock And Pop | Drag City | 1LP Released 5th May 2017 £18.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Bill MacKay Esker £18.00 Genre: Rock And Pop Label: Drag City SKU: DC676 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 5th May 2017 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Miserable Rich, The Miss You In The Days Folk | Humble Soul | 1LP Released 14th November 2011 £15.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Miserable Rich, The Miss You In The Days £15.00 Genre: Folk Label: Humble Soul SKU: HS412LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 14th November 2011 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Elizabethan Session, The The Elizabethan Session Folk | Quercus Records | 180g, 1LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released 11th May 2015 £21.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Elizabethan Session, The The Elizabethan Session £21.00 Genre: Folk Label: Quercus Records SKU: QRLP001 Formats: 180g, 1LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 11th May 2015 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Tim Hardin 3 – Live in Concert 1968 (3 Sides) Folk | Lilith | 1LP Released 21st September 2006 £20.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Tim Hardin 3 – Live in Concert 1968 (3 Sides) £20.00 Genre: Folk Label: Lilith SKU: LR118 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 21st September 2006 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View OSKA My World, My Love, Paris Folk | Nettwerk | 1LP Released 12th August 2022 £17.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders OSKA My World, My Love, Paris £17.00 Genre: Folk Label: Nettwerk SKU: 313041 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 12th August 2022 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Nearly New View Product Quick View Si Kahn I’ll Be There Folk | Flying Fish | 1LP Released 31st August 2013 £8.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Si Kahn I’ll Be There £8.00 Genre: Folk Label: Flying Fish SKU: NN58088 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 31st August 2013 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket Nearly New View Product Quick View Ryan Martin Gimme Some Light Americana / Country | High Moon | 2LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released 21st September 2023 £12.00 Add to basket Reserve View Reservations Ryan Martin Gimme Some Light £12.00 Genre: Americana / Country Label: High Moon SKU: nn272260 Formats: 2LP, Gatefold Sleeve Released Date: 21st September 2023 Reserve View Reservations Read More Add to basket View Product Quick View Bert Jansch A Man Id Rather Be (Part 2) Folk | Earth Recordings | 4LP, Box Set Released 23rd February 2018 £51.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Bert Jansch A Man Id Rather Be (Part 2) £51.00 Genre: Folk Label: Earth Recordings SKU: EARTHLP024 Formats: 4LP, Box Set Released Date: 23rd February 2018 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Jade Fly On Strangewings Folk | Guerssen | 1LP Released 9th April 2012 £22.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Jade Fly On Strangewings £22.00 Genre: Folk Label: Guerssen SKU: GUESS095 Formats: 1LP Released Date: 9th April 2012 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Devon Sproule The Gold String Folk | Tin Angel | 1LP Released 24th March 2017 £16.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Devon Sproule The Gold String £16.00 Genre: Folk Label: Tin Angel SKU: TAR071LP Formats: 1LP Released Date: 24th March 2017 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders View Product Quick View Sara K Play on Words Folk | AudioNautes | 180g, 1LP Released 17th March 2020 £45.00 Back Order View Pre/Back Orders Sara K Play on Words £45.00 Genre: Folk Label: AudioNautes SKU: AANR1602 Formats: 180g, 1LP Released Date: 17th March 2020 Read More Back Order View Pre/Back Orders See more in Folk Start again
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