1.

The Kallikak Family
May 23rd 2007
(Tell-All Records, 2005)

It’s fitting and probably more than a little telling that the first review I posted for Forest Gospel was for May 23rd 2007 by The Kallikak Family. To this day I am still more enchanted by this series of recordings than any other that I have listened to. That’s a pretty hefty claim to place on the shoulders of such an obscure album, but it’s the truth. Andrew Peterson’s (aka The Kallikak Family) way of weaving together disparate instrumentation that is alternately industrial and pastoral just hits me in all the right ways. Additionally, the sequencing of the album is Perfection with a capital P. While May 23rd 2007 contains many pockets of vocal crooning, there are no lyrics to speak of. Yet, even with that being the case, the album’s musical quality does more to develop a narrative than anything I’ve ever heard from “literate” bands like The Decemberists. What The Kallikak Family has created here is simultaneously epic and cuttingly personal. For me, it is the most magnificent document of sound put to tape in this decade and I do not make that claim lightly.

-Thistle

Kallikak Family - May 23rd 2007

Restrospective
Kallikak Family
May 23rd 2007
(2005, Tell-All Records)
10.0/10

The Kallikak Family’s second full length release, May 23rd 2007, is a literary masterpiece. Without a verbally coherent utterance spanning 17 tracks, The Kallikak Family reads like the most engaging and enlightening experience on the printed page. Don’t let the bookish allusions pass you, if you don’t like to read you may not like May 23rd 2007; a concept album bent on the impending date of the protagonist’s death. Now being well after May 23rd of 2007 I thought it an appropriate time to revisit the 2005 masterwork. A masterwork indeed; Andrew Peterson, genius behind May 23rd, has managed an almost indescribable vision of the harsh vision and delicate beauty of a human life. Employing beautiful folk melodies, disjointed percussive backdrops and manipulated tape effects with vocal samples; Peterson has created an experimental work that has a beating, endearing heart, and in opposition to most experimental music is readily accessible. Endless depth of character and the overarching musical vision (back-story or not) is an audible treat that will undoubtedly inspire its few finders long after its predicted funeral.

- Mr. Thistle

Kallikak Family - Second Phase