They say that Elijah Forrest lives the life of a vagabond, criss-crossing the country, every so often dropping off a tape with some underground cassette label run by a friend and then moving on. Weird Forest have had the estimable Sean McCann remaster a selection from these obscure tapes, rescuing obscurity from obsolesence and capturing a dog-eared timelessness, a guitar with torn ligaments and a voice that leaves nicotine stains on your heart.
Creating his own myth as he goes, Forrest has also created his own kind of blues, with tape hiss and feedback as his harmonica. The voice and guitar are firmly in the tradition, both wielded with great emotional and narrative eloquence. In fact, his aesthetic is reminiscent of Jason Molina when he started out as Songs:Ohia – a lo-fi but high-IQ, lone wolf Americana. Both also share a comportment which seems hardscrabble on the outside but which is probably as fragile as a duck´s egg.
The instrumental cuts are as important to Terrors´ personality as the songs, even though they are not blues. But they are not not-blues either. They are think-pieces, processing the guitarist´s ruminations as they cut a mean swath or drift off in reverie. Each is well wrought and painstakingly handmade, like other kinds of peripatetic American folk art – hobo whittling or a sailor´s scrimshaw.
It´s possible that the hermetically-titled Lagan Qord will serve as an epitaph, since all the cassettes Forrest has issued since its release take a new musical tack under the name Lolly Gesserit.
Stephen Fruitman
