Softwar - Softwar
[Digitalis]

A friend once described music like Softwar's self-titled debut as sounding like, 'the Clangers, a Pagan ritual, scratchy Blues improv, Led Zeppelin, Twin Peaks and that feeling when you wake up from a strange dream but have no memory of it whatsoever'. Make of that statement what you will, but it came flooding back into my head the moment I pressed play on this 10 track CD. Mixing spiritual 60's music with Folk, Middle Eastern influences, improv, eerie drones and found sounds, Softwar really are at the forefront of the New Weird America movement.

Imagine legendary space-rockers, Hawkwind, deciding to journey into the deepest backwoods of some strange forest. Intending to record there to be more in tune with nature, they soon realise there is no power supply to plug their electric instruments into. Forced to improvise and in a drug-fuelled haze they decide to record sounds from anything they can get their hands on. Branches, pine cones, tree stumps and the sounds of insects, birds and streams are all effortlessly combined with acoustic instrumentation. This is the sound of Softwar.

Major players in the mysterious Jewelled Antler Collective, a group of free thinkers that started off in San Francisco but now spread their net far and wide across the globe, Softwar's aim is to record spontaneously in natural environments. Disregarding typical song structures, this quartet are intent on documenting the connection between improvisation and nature. In truth, Softwar are 60's musicians trapped in the digital age.

Occasionally breath-taking, Softwar's debut has some inspired moments. "Hagoo (The Victory Over Moods)" builds purposefully from an experiment of drones, off-kilter flute sounds and spontaneous percussion into something truly beautiful. "Immul (The Children's Crusade)", meanwhile, plays like a series of drones that disintegrate into one another. It creates a hypnotic effect, that is enhanced further by mysterious and indecipherable chanting.

Other times, "Softwar" is just too beautiful for its own good, the glockenspiel and acoustic guitar stroll of the eponymous track recalls a more laid-back version of James Blackshaw. The melodies appear, float and dissolve with the greatest of ease while the soft female vocals evoke images of a forest full of colourful and decidious trees. It's also testament to this album's staying power that the best moment possibly comes on the final track "Prui". Don't let the fact that it is just a series of discordant string sounds and off-key drones mixed with shamanic percussion put you off, it is strangely wonderful.

But then, other songs tend to drag a little. The tedious "Soft Love" will have the casual listener reaching desperately for the stop button, while "The Human Spring" is so lo-fi that it sounds like it was recorded in a tin can. However, for those willing to give Softwar their undivided attention, they wil be rewarded with some moments of improv-folk beauty. At times "Softwar" is frustratingly fragmented, others it is just downright confusing. But, it only serves to make the flashes brilliance something to cherish. The New Weird America movement has never been so enchanting.

Track Listing:

01. Psychic Shake (hear the MP3)
02. Hagoo (The Victory Over Moods)
03. The Softwar
04. Fraha
05. Earth Volley
06. Immul (The Children's Crusade) ---> Or, The Unplumbed Potential
07. The Human Spring
08. Soft Love
09. Sightless Sculpture
10. Prui