Emil Amos has been busy enough with Grails and Om and Life that we can forgive the 15 years that have elapsed since releasing the original Lost Decade collection with Holy Sons. This is made that much easier by the fact that he’s promised us “3 different records” this year alone, salvaged from over 1,000 different songs in a bout of cathartic cassette archaeology. Lost Decade Volume II will feature 14 unreleased tunes from 1995-2002, including the gem bellow, recorded almost accidentally in a stoned session with Duncan Trussel in 1996.
“Young Man” gifts us a memory within a memory, not pulled intact from the cognitive bank, but set loose by the material prompts of fields, dogs, chord “structures,” olfactories, factories, and good drugs. Nudged into conversation. Amos’ voice sounds remarkably full for the context, world weary without lapsing into self-importance. The hiss of the tape sprinkles his higher registers and louder exclamations with a comforting grit and grain, adding a sonic accompaniment to the experience of crackly recollection. The song meanders with purpose in that way Holy Sons honed so well, pulling you out from some bong-smoked college bedroom just long enough to leave you reeling when the end comes too quick: “Is that it?”
Holy Sons’ Lost Decade Volume II is out mid-March on limited clear vinyl, courtesy of Chrome Peeler.
• Holy Sons: http://holysons.com
• Chrome Peeler: http://www.chromepeeler.com
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