Patrick Elkins: Fruits of the Spirit (We’re Twins, 2006/Editions JAV, 2023)
October 14, 2023 at 2:26 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a comment
Patrick Elkins: Fruits of the Spirit
Ypsilanti weirdo folk legend Patrick Elkins released
this album on We’re Twins Records in 2006, right before the label shut down. It was the label’s only professionally pressed CD rather than a CD-R, and 500 copies were pressed, but most of them just sat in a closet for years. Label founder Jason Voss has now started a new label,
Editions JAV, and is returning the remaining copies to circulation. Recorded and produced by Fred Thomas, it’s closer to noisy garage-pop than folk, with lots of distorted guitars, dubby effects, melodica, drum machines, and a general electrified atmosphere. The songs are usually short and fragmentary, though “Tornado Belt” is a more dramatic string-laden ballad, and “Fruit of the Spirits” is sort of entranced drone-folk with plenty of moaning and warped effects. “Fallout” is 38 seconds of throat-shredding punk screaming, but not at punk tempo. “I’ll Be Your Celibate Monk” is one of the weirder, more unpredictable moments, and “Fever on the Inside” is a drum-heavy caveman rock pounder that sounds as unhinged as anything on
1/2 Gentlemen/Not Beasts. Finally, “Suicide Muffins” is a grand entry into the canon of upbeat songs with dark, even morbid lyrics, but it’s tossed off gleefully in about a minute.
The Answer Is In The Beat 
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