Various Artists
Chapter Music
(2009)

Kath Bloom is perhaps most recognizable from her musical cameo in Richard Linklater’s 1995 drama Before Sunrise, in which Ethan Hawke and Julie Delpy listen to Bloom’s “Come Here” on vinyl and shoot each other flirtatious glances. The moment is sweet and sentimental, and perhaps on the strength of the song, the scene, much like the rest of the film, never veers off to become a cheesy romance. Almost 10 years before Zach Braff self-consciously curated a soundtrack full of folk and indie rock darlings on which he would rely for the emotional weight his screenplay and acting could not provide, Linklater distilled the moment’s intimacy and sadness through a single song to much greater and subtler effect. Three decades after her career began, Kath Bloom still remains a moving, volatile voice. She may lack the range of a Joan Baez, but her shaky, vulnerable vocals go perfectly with her melancholy tropes, as if the sounds she emits struggle under the weight of their sadness.

In the past decade, American folk musicians have looked back to relative unknowns, rediscovering music that had never received its just deserves during its time. Nick Drake and Vashti Bunyan are prominent examples of such musicians to date, and like Bunyan, Bloom has returned to writing and recording new music since Linklater’s films attracted interest to her work. With respect to Bloom’s legacy, Loving Takes This Course is a two-disc compilation of covers and originals. The covers are produced by several leading contemporary folk and pop musicians, some of whose personal work owes much to Bloom’s avant-garde compositions with guitarist Loren Connors. Bill Callahan (Smog) covers “The Breeze/My Baby Cries” with hand percussions and strings, blending more refined layers to the broken, slightly off-putting quality of Bloom’s original. Australian folk singer Laura Jean harmonizes the haunting vocal parts of “When I See You,” adapting Bloom’s shriek-like howls to a more formulated choral arrangement. In a record full of somber moods, freak folk champion Devendra Banhart offers an energetic, organ-laden “Forget About Him” and folk duo The Dodos string together rumbling percussions and horns to create a cinematic version of “Biggest Light of All.” Meg Baird’s (Espers) piano rendition of “There Was a Boy” is just familiar enough to channel Bloom’s particular crooning, although her whisper-thin vocals stand in contrast to the original.

Although not all the covers on the record are exceptional (some have an understandably slavish deference to the original songs), the second disc contains all of Bloom’s original solo and collaborative recordings, making this not only a remarkable tribute piece, but also a competent retrospective of Bloom’s music. Fans of Nico and Vashti Bunyan may find her musical and vocal quirks pleasantly familiar and unsettling. For those who can’t get past her particular vocal style, the covers provide enough new palettes to make new fans of the music if not exactly the musician.

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For more info, visit http://www.myspace.com/kathbloomchapter

via Abe Ahn, 4 April 2009 8:41am | 1 |