Altered Zones

The freak-folk movement may have peaked about half a decade ago, but there's no reason to believe that it was entirely exhausted as a form. And as long as young people continue to be seduced by the notion of a greener, more salutary, pre-Industrial past, there's no stopping them from trying to reconnect with those past musical languages that keep it alive. (Of course, post-modern technologies like the Internet help quite a bit.) As Quilt, Boston's Anna Rochinski, Shane Butler, and John Andrews, and Taylor Mcvay's join in the hunt for lost authenticity with their own, vividly colored back-to-the-land fantasy. "Penobska Oakwalk," a track from their forthcoming Mexican Summer debut, manages to combine classic Neil Young bass bounce with ISB bardisms and three-part harmony à la Jefferson Airplane and still sound, well, uniquely itself. Whether this is the result of above-par songwriting, or simply the scupulous combination of carefully selected reference points, is your guess as well as mine. --Emilie Friedlander, Altered Zones

MP3: Quilt: "Penobska Oakwalk"

Quilt LP is out November 7th via Mexican Summer

--Previously:

MP3: Quilt: "Cowboys In The Void"