Hilary Woods - Birthmarks (2020) EN

It seems to me that the extremely dark dream pop drawing from folka and noise of all kinds, let's call it Chelsea-Wolfe-ism, recently is really powerful. I've just mentioned Mirny Mine and now I'm simply amazed by the new album from Hilary Woods Birthmarks.

The Irish artist combines the aforementioned genres creating a super-rich and super-dark tribal cocktail. The richness and breadth of her horizons are well seen in the list of inspirations she accounts for that ranges from wet plate photography and wolves up to Chris Marker's movies. The album that was made when the artist was pregnant (definitely an inspiration for the title), impresses with the musical backgrounds of airy backing vocals, subtle neoclassicism and mind-invading noise.

The further into the album the darker and more eerie it gets. Like in Mud and Stones, dominated by the unnerving, creeping somewhere and barely audible noise and its whole dark tribal-folk-ambient vibe. Especially the use of the live instruments that often generate this atmosphere is something that should be respected, just listen to the first part of The Mouth and try not to feel thrills crawling up your spine.

Birthmarks costs 7.99 USD.

Check: Through the Dark, Love

Country: Ireland

Genre: noisy dark folk
Label: Sacred Bones

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