Dragging An Ox Through Water Tropics of Phenomenon
(Awesome Vistas/Freedom To Spend, 2008/ 2009)
The sound of Dragging An Ox Through Water sounds more like the sound of dragging a folk song through a junk yard. On Tropics of Phenomenon, Brian Mumford (the man behind the ox dragging) has created one of the most incredible debut albums of the decade by combining acoustic guitar based songwriting (albeit somewhat unconventional songwriting) with wire board fritzing noise. It’s quite a beautiful marriage and one that is much too sweet to be so quaintly short. We want more!
‘Sup my twine suckas? In light of some hefty essays and finals that I will be (and am) engulfed in for the next couple weeks, I think it is safe to say that I won’t be seeking out any new music in 2009 before it comes to a close. Fortunately, I have already listened to pretty much everything that has been released this year (except for most of it) so I think I am pretty well ready to get this over with. Also, no blurbs. Everything on here (with the exception of one album) has been reviewed on Forest Gospel this year, so if you’re curious just look them up. Plus, I’ve already done enough blurbing for my end-of-decade list (which is also on the horizon). So here they are, my best favourite albums of 2009:
50) Clark - Totems Flare
49) Cymbals Eat Guitars - Why There Are Mountains
48) Andrew Bird - Noble Beast
47) Why? - Eskimo Snow
46) James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game
45) Black Dice - Repo
44) Anduin - Abandoned in Sleep
43) Mark Templeton + aA. Munson - Acre Loss
42) Bill Callahan - Sometimes I Wish We Were An Eagle
41) Mountains - Choral
40) Here We Go Magic - Here We Go Magic
39) Giuseppe Ielasi - Aix / (Another) Stunt Ep
38) Bear In Heaven - Beast Rest Forth Mouth
37) Blackout Beach - Skin of Evil
36) The Antlers - Hospice
35) Zs - Music For the Modern White
34) Smith Westerns - Smith Westerns
33) Julianna Barwick - Florine
32) Sparklehorse + Fennesz - In the Fishtank 15
31) Millipede - Death Mountain / Sand & Surf 7"
30) Braden J. McKenna - Gigantic Monster Cave
29) Mount Eerie - Wind's Poem
28) Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers
27) Ekkehard Ehlers + Paul Wirkus - Ballads
26) Bad Hangin' Out - Bad Hangin' Out
25) Atlas Sound - Logos
24) Animal Hospital - Memory
23) Grizzly Bear - Veckematist
22) Burial + Four Tet - Moth/Wolf Cub 12"
21) Swan Lake - Enemy Mine
20) A Sunny Day in Glasgow - Ashes Grammar
19) Leyland Kirby - Sadly, the Future is No Longer What It Was
18) The Hunches - Exit Dreams
17) John Wiese - Circle Snare
16) Fever Ray - Fever Ray
15) Axolotl - Of Bonds In General
14) Prefuse 73 - Meditation Upon Meditations
13) Caboladies - Crowded Out Memory / Constellation Deformity cs
12) Ben Frost - By The Throat
11) Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights
10) Sam Hamilton - Sooty Symposium
9) DM Stith - Heavy Ghost
8) OOIOO - Armonico Hewa
7) Sunset Rubdown - Dragonslayer
6) Animal Collective - Merriweather PostPavilion
5) A Faulty Chromosome - Craving To Be Coddled So We Can Feel Fake-Safe
4) Evangelista - Prince of Truth
3) Andrew Douglas Rothbard - Exodusarabesque
2) Dragging An Ox Through Water - The Tropics of Phenomenon
Dragging An Ox Through Water The Tropics of Phenomenon (04.2009, Freedom To Spend) RIYL = Kurt Weisman, Ursula Bogner, complete awesomeness
This...now this is something. Like whoa! My updates have been sparse as of the last couple weeks and are likely to continue to be so for a couple more as I finish out this semester. Oh man, Summer has been a long time coming huh? Well I had to break this little silence, if only momentarily for what is quite possibly the most ridiculously radical (= ridiculous, right Grant?) record I have heard in more than just a little while. Wowza. Seriously, I can’t stop pressing repeat. This is going to sustain me through finals and beyond for certain. So, what/who is it? Dragging An Ox Through Water is the official moniker of Portland resident, Brian Mumford. Apparently, the Awesome Vistas label in Portland snuck The Tropics of Phenomenon out secretly last year to the exasperatedly positive response of the local Portland scene, but with little other adulation to speak of. Now, Pete Swanson (formerly of the mighty Yellow Swans) has seen fit to re-release the album on his label, Freedom To Spend, as a compact disc, and thank goodness for that. My heavens, this is too good for words and my particular case of words are so shot and tired. The first thing you should know about Dragging An Ox Through Water, I suppose, is that he is a sorcerer. You are dealing with magic here. At the core of these little pockets of sorcery lie the most simplistic and beautiful of outsider pop balladry, of bizarre Americana and fragile, freakish folk. All on their lonesome, these gems would shine a country mile in every direction. The core is strong and unique, in the same vein as, say, Joanna Newsom or Neutral Milk Hotel. However, Mr. Mumford is not merely a genius song crafter but cavernous sound engineer. These songs are mortally infused with an electronic pulse that propels them into a realm of ancient, mythical robotics. It colours the album in the most enchantingly peculiar way and lifts Mumford’s simple bedroom string pluckery into a whole 'nother realm. And from what I understand, the whole things is orchestrated by Mumford’s own hands. Heaved atop of his acoustic meandering, Dragging An Ox Through Water feels more like dragging an acoustic guitar through an old-world toy store and then an analog electronics shop and then a mechanical bird aviary and then the fifth dimension. And it is so awesome! If you could only see the grin on my face as I type this. I can’t help it. The Tropics of Phenomenon is so gorgeous and atonal and bizarre and exciting, I can’t contain myself. The oscillating purrs! The noisy chirps! The broken Casios! I have just come to a resolution: a deal with you the readers, as it were. I am going to post this little inept review and leave it up until I’m done with school. This album needs to be at the very top of the Forest Gospel blog posts for at least a couple of weeks. The thing is, why move onto to something else? The Tropics of Phenomenon is something to savor, something to fully and completely indulge. Don’t worry about all the Grizzly Bears and Dirty Projectors and other, similarly hyped nonsense out there in the blogosphere. Sure, those records are all fairly good, but none of those upcoming records match the utterly refreshing pulse that flows through this record. Dragging An Ox Through Water slays that stuff. So, The Tropics of Phenomenon isn’t likely to become the next Pitchfork poster child (they seem to be getting more and more offbase by the minute), but I assure you, if you want to hear some real magic, if you want to hear some real audio sorcery, something truly enchanting and transportative, something that is actually worth your hard earned recession bills - it is most certainly this. I can barely even remember what else has come out this year when I'm listening to this. So, so good. Well, enjoy, and see you in a couple of weeks.
Dragging An Ox Through Water 
