Sparks & Spools - Visions -- Magic -- Trees

Sparks & Spools
Visions – Magic -- Trees
(2009, Mooondial Tapes)
RIYL = Scott Tuma, The Books, Aaron Martin

Local experimental folkscape troubadour Sparks & Spools has just released a follow up to his debut, Three Cups of Sea Water, as the first release on the newly formed Moondial Tapes label and it’s a beauty! I was a fan of his debut and the digital release he put out on Magic Goat, but this brings everything to a new level. The method remains the same. The man behind the fireworks and thread winders, Taylor Christensen, blends his blessed acoustic guitar and various string accompaniments with samples and occasional vocals to gorgeous ends. In addition to his tape collage formula, Christensen has added some electronic elements here and there to keep your heart beating. There is a indefinable warmth to Sparks & Spools that seems magnified on Visions – Magic – Trees. Baked in nostalgia and left to cool in the sun, everything about what Christensen has produced feels like it was made in some rickety, backwoods tree fort. I keep wanting to create some type of genre label for what Sparks & Spools is for some reason and I think the best I’ve come up with is lemonade nostalgia folk. However, there are failings in this. Lemonade might be a little too carefree. There is a slight edge flowing under Visions – Magic – Trees with the thematically bizarre religious samples. Sparks & Spools feels a little too relaxed to be making any heavy handed statements, but not too ambivalent to realize cracks in the wood or the loose thread in his spools. There is a marked beauty in these minor key moments and Visions – Magic – Trees, for all its sepia toned joy, is not oblivious to those tiny minor moments. So now let’s get to the logistics. While Visions – Magic – Trees is certainly worthy of a wider release, there are only 50 tapes that have been made. However, in the typically generous fashion of Mr. Christensen, the whole album is downloadable for free! So you have no excuses. Give it a listen, fall in love, and then get a cassette tape of your very own. Good Stuff.

-Thistle

Download Visions -- Magic -- Trees from Moondial Tapes!

Sparks & Spools - Three Cups of Sea Water

Sparks & Spools
Three Cups of Sea Water
(07.2008, Cavern Sounds)
Verdict = Clatter organized into folk

It is always nice to go into a listening experience with virtually no information or expectations and come out the other side with an absolute gem. Sparks & Spools’ Three Cups of Sea Water provides just such an experience. We received an email about the humble little release not too long ago and have been smitten ever since. Sparks & Spools is the musical alter ego of Salt Lake City resident Taylor Christensen. Christensen’s project emanates the quaint beauty of music created at home, employing everything within arms reach. Alternating between purely instrumental tracks and shy balladry, Sparks & Spools might be most easily categorized as folk, but to leave it at that would be something of an unfortunate over-generalization because Christensen does just about everything but follow conventions. Each song on Three Cups of Sea Water beams with childlike wonder and instrumentation ranging from a standard acoustic guitar to recordings of doors shutting and coins clattering (notable on the aptly titled track “coin”). In fact, Christensen seems to use just about everything he could within the confines of his recording space in order to evoke the melodic or percussive tendencies of every dust mite dwelling within the cobwebs of his songs. It is a bustling clatter to be sure, but at the hands of Christensen it is something of a home brewed orchestra that is an absolute wonder to hear. Trust me, after listening to this thing a dozen times over you will still be searching through these songs curiously identifying the individual instrumental cogs that make the songs work. That’s something that is important as well – these songs work; there is never a feeling of experimentation for experimentation’s sake. Every component feels absolutely necessary as if without it the whole album would collapse into a dusty rubble. There is also a playfulness here that bring to mind like minded instrumental rubble from FG favourites like Miki Odagiri, Shugo Tokumaru or The Books. If you’re a fan of any of the afore mentioned artists, Sparks & Spools’ latest will enter your record collection comfortably and notably. Three Cups of Sea Water is simply a timeless document of why music is so charming in the first place. Oh, and I almost forgot the best part, Christensen is giving this thing away for free online (check the link below) so you don’t even have to move from where your sitting in order to experience what is surely one of the best releases of the year.

-Mr. Thistle

Sparks & Spools - Three Cups of Sea Water