High Wolf - S/T

High Wolf
High Wolf
(2009, Winged Sun Records)
RIYL = Caboladies, Stag Hare, Predator Vision

In the wake of two super-limited, super-terrific, already sold out tapes, High Wolf has released this self titled CDr which should hopefully stick around long enough for people who are reading this to snatch one before they too vanish into oblivion. Unfortunately, this seems to be the current trend in underground experimental noise and drone. Start a delicious new group and proceed to release awesome slabs of sound in the most limited quantities possible. I don’t get it. I don’t care if I have one copy of something that was limited to 100. I just want to hear the music. Why not make more copies? They’ll sell, right? I mean, take this most recent Caboladies LP: Atomic Weekender is the band's first release on wax and for some reason Digitalis sees fit to only produce 100 of them!? It’s baffling. Doesn’t it cost more per record when you produce smaller runs? Surely there is at least 3 or 400 more people who would have easily snatched those things up (me included). The same thing goes for the ridiculously expensive Animal Crack Box set from Animal Collective. Of course you’re going to start a feeding frenzy when you only press a 1000 copies of a new 3LP for a band who had just released the album of 2009 (For the record, Merriweather Post Pavillion, while amazing, is no longer my favourite of the year. Still good though.). Anyway, I’ll try to subdue my rant. You can just download the ripped copies online anyway, right? And if I’m going to be forced to steal a copy instead of pay for them because some hip, limited run release sold out, then I’m also not going to feel bad about it. What does any of this have to do with High Wolf’s selft titled CDr? Nothing really. You can still order this thing. Six full, lush tracks of bubbly, tropical and tribal drones that alternate between meandering meditations and percussive propulsions. These guys really are worthy of the amount of hype that is beginning to build for them. Who knows, they could turn out to be 2010’s Emeralds. So, as an apology for a review that really only used a sentence or two to describe any actual music, I suggest this: keep an eye out for future High Wolf releases, because they may not last long and considering their three for three track record so far (the Animal Totem cs is my favourite of the three), they’re not likely to disappoint. Beautiful dense drones for the drone inclined. Check it!

-Thistle

High Wolf on MySpace