Black Lake Silver Sky
(New Reality Records)
Black Lake’s Silver Sky is gloriously raw and unpretentious. Intentional or not, the songs flow fast and furious, as if recorded in a passion-fueled, one-night, four-track orgy of first-take inspiration. The instrumentation is simple and striking; stark guitars, varied percussive sounds, and vocals layered deep in watery reverb. The sound is cavernous and ethereal, as if entirely recorded with a single submersible room mic. The Columbia County duo of Slink Moss and Susan Jennings have been experimenting with various mediums since 2009. Performing with installation sound and art, spoken word and poetry, and projections fused with paintings, sculpture, and shadows, they create in the immersive and the abstract. Self-described as “post-punk jangle-dream,” the album is a probing, psychedelic-folk dance of 16 songs ranging from the delightfully sublime 24-second “China Mei Li” to the soothing and invitingly epic three-and-a-half minute “How to Fly.”