Palodine: Press
"Think of Palodine as the sonic equivalent of a Cormac McCarthy novel: a bewitching, unsettling combination of beauty and darkness; a place where gloriously ominous storm clouds are always on the horizon and terror lurks in beautiful shadows. Garden of Deceit, the band's sophomore album, is as authentic as gothic country gets, coming as it does from the offspring of coal miners and Mormons. Like Nick Cave, the band is adept at plumbing religion's more apocalyptic depths without sacrificing (and often amplifying) its inherent sense of awe and reverence. "Redwinged Blackbird" kicks the album off with an ominous acoustic strum before building into a thunderous, elemental crash. Vocalist Katrina Whitney sounds like the Angel of Death - her voice sometimes harrowing, sometimes soothing, while Palodine's expert use of dynamics keep Garden of Deceit from becoming monochrome. This journey ends with closing lullaby "Magdelene," which feels like the perfect moment of stillness after a devastating storm. Redemption may or may not be coming, but beauty offers a glimmer of hope."
Having opened and shared the stage with Low and Willard Grant Conspiracy, you get an idea of where Palodine is on the musical spectrum. Led by singer Katrina Whitney, the band is a collage of Kathleen Edwards, Shelby Lynne and at times Sparklehorse as exemplified on “Redwinged Blackbird”. Whitney’s hushed and sometimes haunting vocals also sound like Patti Smith on the plodding but pleasing “Scar”. Nothing really stands out on the record, but everything seems to have its right location in the track list. “Sweet Mouth, Black Heart” is a rougher, cocksure number that has a darker, ominous hue a la P.J. Harvey. Perhaps the best of the bunch is “Sorrow Has Opened Our Eyes”, another number you could envision Whitney getting lost in, resembling a fuller, rounded-out track The Handsome Family might have a stab at. And it gets stronger with each listen and each song, whether it’s the alt.country eeriness fueling “A Dozen Stones” or the chilling “Ways to Drown”. The coda on the album, “Magdalene”, reminds you that Palodine should have an incredibly bright future with such dark, dreary songs. In a just world they would be giving Cowboy Junkies a run for their money.
Palodine returns for their second full-length with the current line-up: Katrina Whitney, who plays keyboards, toys, and tools, writes the words (and sings them), and Michael Aryn, who plays guitars, banjo, dobro, bass, percussion, and keyboard. Together they create telluric rock like they're several people who live on a commune in the desert on nothing but visions of apocalypse from violent fasts deep into the hollow earth. Aryn is the son of a Missouri coal miner. Whitney's family were a tight Mormon tribe from Holland who came to the States right after World War Two.
There are inscriptions around the outer edge of the compact disc itself on the band's mature, textured follow-up. There are two quotes: the first is from the Qumran-Essene texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the second quotation is from Southern grotesque author Flannery O'Connor -- "the truth does not change according to our ability to stomach it."
O'Connor was a novelist and a short story writer, a woman who did not flinch from unequivocally describing the darkness in people's souls -- and Whitney has no problem singing about it either. Both of those lines above printed on the CD deal with deception and truth, and fittingly the very last line of the last song on the record, "Magdalene," is "The truth is good when you're looking. The truth is good."
Desmond Shea mixed the bramble and bracken-covered Garden of Deceit. He was a former member of Tarnation (4AD Records) and has produced and worked with Diamonda Galas (!), Paula Frazer (ex-Tarnation), Court & Spark, and Einsturzende Neubauten. The dense tangle of acoustic instruments strummed along with the swirls from Whitney's Micro Korg scrape along perfectly together -- as Aryn raises a backwoods boom-bap ruckus beneath. Songs like the monster "Woman of Cain" feel like the Tubal-Cain himself creating the first lamentation in the very first City born.
Palodine has performed shows with Low and David Eugene Edwards (16 Horsepower, Woven Hand) and that makes a hell of a lot of sense. Garden of Deceit is an allusion to mankind being deceived -- "Sweet Mouth, Black Heart" one of the stronger images, and a recurrent theme. The illustrations in the album's elegant but sinister cover design resplendently display tempting fruit and animals being trapped and in pain. The music often seduces and punishes like nature -- and the supernatural -- itself.
What do Mormon immigrants and coal miners have in common? Well they produced the children that grew to become Palodine. After experimenting with a wide variety of music (think shoegazer, folk, country, gothic), guitarist Michael Aryn and singer Katrina Whitney wrote and self-produced their debut “Desolate Son” on an unheated floating barge in Seattle. Now with “Garden of Deceit” (recorded by Aryn and Desmond Shea of Einsturzende Neubauten and Tarnation infamy) they build on their previous successes and delve into the more dark and sinister sides of humanity with lyrics rich in Biblical imagery and symbolism. Wicked.
Having made a good mark with their first album, Palodine return on Garden of Deceit with another strong effort; if they are still yet reaching for a full sound of their own, they are now well on the way to accomplishing that. Part of it can be heard in Katrina Whitney's singing, sounding darker and stronger than before, a passionate take on country/soul refracted through the amplified blast and involved arrangements provided by Michael Aryn and Whitney. It's not quite Dusty Springfield goes to hell, say, but the opening "Redwinged Blackbird" alone is the kind of song that upends all the staid alt-country conventions in favor of a dark throb that's closer to Earth than anything else. The thanks the band give to Low in their credits is an indicator as well but instead of the preternatural control familiar from the Minnesota band's work, Palodine here almost play to a wide stage backdrop, their Walkabouts-derived theatricality given a strong new focus all their own. Nearly every song sounds like a drama (or if one prefers a melodrama) in miniature, with Aryn's guitar drive, alternately a blast and an understated pace, and Whitney's commanding-then-cool singing driving things forward. But for all that the songs retain their individual identity rather than melting into each other; the end-on-a-tense-note cut of "Sweet Mouth, Black Heart" sounds little like the rolling shuffle of "Woman of Cain," especially with Whitney's sudden clipped calls signaling when Aryn cranks the volume in a dark strut. With other highlights like "A Dozen Stones" (with Aryn's solo a suddenly thrilling delight, a moment of lightness that definitely casts shadows) and the concluding "Magdalene," as moody but vibrant an album ender as one could hope fot, to its credit, Garden of Deceit is Palodine's best moment yet and promises much for next time.
It’s hard for me to review Palodine’s music because, I think, their song seem so deep and introspective that it’s really hard to get a line on where they’re coming from, but when you listen to the music you know….you really know it’s coming from a place of truth (that might sound cheesy but it’s true).
Though the new album, Garden of Deceit, seems like an extension of their previous album, Desolate Son, at first listen, there is some growth on the new album, there are some harder tracks; songs like Sweet Mouth, Black Heart and Women of Cain are more intense than any of the other songs. And with this album Palodine are able to give us a clearer picture of their issues of faith and the biblical theme used through out most of their music.
Whenever I listen to Palodine I get a twinge in my heart, their music is heartbreaking and inspiring. There really are no words to describe what the album does to me, if songs were angels, these songs would be the Arch-Angels (I hope that’s not blasphemous). Garden of Deceit is a great album by one of the best bands out there today.
When you first discover MySpace, you go through a phase of euphoric curiosity. Before you start receiving too many add requests, you take time to check out the bands who contact you, in the hope to find some gems. This is how we were introduced to Palodine’s music. One request among several, a page with sober colors, an interesting list of references... The band seem to be choosing accurately whom they decide to contact. From the very first notes you hear, something strikes you immediately: there is a sound, a voice, a coherence. Something that sets this band apart from other requests. You listen to one track, then a second one, you come back to this page later... There’s definitely something about these songs that catches your ear.
And so a few months later, you end up (a little ahead of schedule) listening to the second album by this band from Seattle. The first time you hear Garden of Deceit, you’re reminded of the impressions from that first virtual encounter. These ten songs explore well-trodden grounds, in a way that’s classical without ever being corny. But this record just won’t leave your player. You find yourself playing it repeatedly and immersing yourself in the music and you’re at a loss to explain just why you feel so comfortable doing so. There’s a nice balance in this music, the vocals are pleasant and nuanced enough, the riffs linger in your ear and inside your head. You experience something similar to what you felt when you first heard Bat For Lashes last year, in a completely different musical style: whereas you might not be immediately convinced by some of the melodies, this music casts a spell on you right away.
The most surprising aspect of Palodine’s music is an interesting contrast between the band’s musical universe and the one that appears through the lyrics. Some of the references mentioned by Michael Aryn and Katrina Whitney speak for themselves: Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, 16 Horsepower and Woven Hand, Flannery O’Connor, Carnivale... The lyrics often explore “Southern gothic” atmospheres: biblical references, dysfunctional families, underlying violence. The lyrics hint at certain archetypes without ever lapsing into clichés, maybe thanks to the way Katrina Whitney’s warm voice shapes the words. On “Scar”, one of the record’s most beautiful moments, she hints at a drama never actually specified through a few enigmatic words (“The knife has left your trace behind/What’s beyond that starry sky?/They told me I won’t feel a thing”). Beneath the violent imagery, the one phrase “I hear the bells ring” is full of hidden meanings. It lingers long after the song has ended.
If Palodine’s lyrics belong to this tradition, the band’s music does not seem to qualify as americana. At least not in an obvious way. Sometimes their rock is laced with banjo, conjuring up the ghost of 16 Horsepower, on “Revelations” for instance – but the sound never actually leans towards blues or country. The guitars are harsh, the bass lines ominous, the atmosphere heavy. The word “gothic” (not specifically Southern this time) fleetingly crosses your mind. You don’t know whether to dwelve on it because it has been too often ill-used, but it leaves a lingering impression. In any case, the band have a very skilful way of playing on a feeling of building-up tension and impending storm. Once again, it probably has a lot to do with Katrina Whitney’s vocals, the way she caresses the words or drags them out, contrasting with the violence of the musical background. There’s a feeling of hidden threat and underlying sadness throughout this record. Sometimes the explosion is near, as in “Restored” with its obsessing riff and surging guitars, as the record closes to an end. This song digs its claws into you and simply won’t let go. It is followed by the soothing tones of eight-minute track “Madgalene” which quietly ends the album on ethereal vocals. This time, it’s the ghost of Mazzy Star that seems to hover for a while.
Among the jumbled impressions you experience while listening to Garden of Deceit repeatedly, it’s tricky to distinguish unbiased appreciation from what might be a more personal case of hearing the right music at the right time. Maybe there’s a hint of nostalgia in the pleasure you take in this record, something that takes you back years ago because the band’s musical or literary influences strike a chord. But it actually doesn’t matter. Because something’s happening, even though you don’t really know how to name it. “Scar” and “Restored” just won’t leave your mind. Palodine may well be one of these exceptions that restore your faith in the possibility to discover interesting new bands through MySpace. Whatever might happen around this album, we know one thing for sure: if only for the thrill we’ve experienced while listening to “Scar”, we definitely intend to keep an eye on them.