Hallock Hill

Timber Timbre, “Trouble Comes Knocking,” Timber Timbre (Arts & Crafts 2009)

I mentioned in my recent post on Stinkweeds, the great Phoenix record store, that the band Timber Timbre was playing while I was there. This Canadian band is really just Taylor Kirk, and his third lp, self-titled, is a closed-world of eight gorgeous tracks. With varying moods from a kind of dirty macabre folk to sweet soulfulness, Taylor creates an atmosphere of beguiling lyricism. Throughtout is a north-of-the-border openness too, big skies hovering over small houses and situations.

The glue is Kirk’s voice. It is the element that grabbed me first at Stinkweeds. To say that he sounds a bit like Antony seems crazy once you’ve listened to the entire album, but at first there were echoes of Antony’s gift of passionate articulation, where melody and mood adumbrate language. Kirk has his own special gift, something a bit oblique, blended with his penchant for peculiar turns of phrase, all of which somehow work.

Arts & Crafts continue to release excellent music, from the wild expansiveness of Broken Social Scene, to the gorgeousness of Feist. The whole label is worth watching. Now with Timber Timbre’s third there is further reason to look and listen towards Toronto.

Arts & Crafts

Timber Timbre on MySpace