today' song is from Hala Strana, a project from one of my favorite guitarists, Steven R Smith. he started out in Mirza, kind of a hazy guitar-oriented psych band, but then shifted over to solo records (sometimes of stark beauty) and also reunited w/ some Mirza ex-patriots and became entwined in the varied and fruitful Jewelled Antler collective. so, bottom line is that mr smith is a very busy and productive man. nice to know.
for my record budget, though, it's Hala Strana which is the clear winner of his work (though the solo record Kohl is certainly a high point, and i'm glad to see it actually got re-pressed from it's ridiculous 50 cdr copy original release, and onto proper vinyl as well. anyway, Hala Strana kinda uses Balkan and other eastern european folk musics as a base, and then steven spins off wildly from there. so there are definite strains of gypsy music and stuff people might listen to while making/eating goulash. this song isn't as pronounced in this regard, and it's a fairly straightforward listen (some of steven's homemade instruments generate sound frequency which scare my cat), but it's a good one to start.
Spiring Plume
for my record budget, though, it's Hala Strana which is the clear winner of his work (though the solo record Kohl is certainly a high point, and i'm glad to see it actually got re-pressed from it's ridiculous 50 cdr copy original release, and onto proper vinyl as well. anyway, Hala Strana kinda uses Balkan and other eastern european folk musics as a base, and then steven spins off wildly from there. so there are definite strains of gypsy music and stuff people might listen to while making/eating goulash. this song isn't as pronounced in this regard, and it's a fairly straightforward listen (some of steven's homemade instruments generate sound frequency which scare my cat), but it's a good one to start.
Spiring Plume
