Beginning with the sound of tyres bruising an open road, Middle Fork, one of the lead singles on AJ Woods’ upcoming, masterful long player Hawk Is Listening, is all about seemingly unending horizons, of long roads travelled, of big dreams, of nature’s power, of dark nights of the soul. And it’s a bloody delight. It’s an absolute bloody delight. This is music that is aiming to capture, unabashed, concepts of the American epic and it does so with a spine-tingling self-assuredness. It is unashamedly widescreen in scope – but does not feel bombastic in the slightest; this is natural writing- and nature is a big beast that warrants such ambition.
The instrumentation and production are as glorious as a new dawn (it feels too obvious to say cinematic but this is undeniably visual music) and that combination of creaking banjo, mouth organ and violin, along with the clattering swing of the guitars, crafts a truly new-world wonder – rich in a century’s worth of converging associations. The violin playing is utterly sublime – it shivers with shimmering possibilities and feels somehow both coldly brittle and lush, warm and rejuvenating in strange, dichotomous symmetry – the music’s night and day colliding as the magical hand of Heather Trost guides us back to the morning.
It’s hard to deny the slippery presence of Neil Young’s long shadow cast across this open road of a song, particularly in the high and yearning vocal – but AJ Woods has allowed that sly silhouette to simply shade his eyes before setting off further down the path untraveled. This is his own world writ large. This is far more than a cap-doffing collection of influences. No..no..no: this is reaching for permanence. Indeed, this feels carved from stone. It is somewhat refreshing to hear someone aiming for these lasting, foundational sound worlds from an Albuquerque bunker- to achieve something so canonical makes it all the more magical.
Recorded and produced with grace and warmth by Jeremy Barnes at Sonido del Norte, a range of collaborative voices have gathered to bring Middle Fork (not to mention the album as a whole) to fully fledged, heart-pumping life. And there is so much life in this music- depth and richness and a real sense of possibility at play. The possibility of what a new horizon might offer.
Perpetual Doom are putting out a super Ltd edition vinyl of the album (oh how I wish I can get myself a copy) that will be so worth seeking out if you can. This has already set itself up to be a work of classic, new American song craft. Don’t sleep on it.
Until then, get to know Middle Fork a little better. It will stay with you.
This one is built to last…
Written by M.A Welsh (Misophone)
Music | Misophone (bandcamp.com)
