Chirping birds, folk guitar, non-Western percussion and droning static harmonies � all of these aspects usually equal something you try your hardest to ignore while a Yoga instructor orders you to relax during Savasana. So why is Black Medicine Music, a disc forged with these ingredients, so interesting?

Local Reviews: Stag Hare

By
April 23, 2013

Local Music Reviews

Stag Hare
Black Medicine Music
A. Star
Street: June 2008
Stag Hare = Grouper + La Monte Young + Freescha
Chirping birds, folk guitar, non-Western percussion and droning static harmonies � all of these aspects usually equal something you try your hardest to ignore while a Yoga instructor orders you to relax during Savasana. So why is Black Medicine Music, a disc forged with these ingredients, so interesting? Garrick “Stag Hare” Biggs (and local guests such as Tenants of Balthazar’s Castle’s Michael Biggs and Aye Aye’s Andrew Alba) beats the newage rap through a clever amalgamation of said elements, heaping doses of reverb, delay, edits and tricks that allow the music to suggest rather than smack the listener over the head. Throughout this album melodies phase in and out with swirling arpeggiations, time-stretched guitar work, buried-in-the-mix singing, vocal garbles and chugging atmospheric rhythms formed from tinkling metal and acoustic/sampled drums. Biggs’s attention to detail is like turning canned responses and otherwise ordinary words into poetry.