There may be something in the water in Athens, Georgia. I mean that in a good way, in consideration of how many good bands have come from the town. Another one is the newer Immaterial Possession. The band's second album, Mercy of the Crane Folk, is out on Fire Records this week, and it's fairly inventive.
Centered around the vocals of Madeline Polites, the material here blends psychedelia, folk, and post-rock (for lack of a better term). The selections are propulsive and complex, like the title cut and the opener, "Chain Breaker", even as "To the Fête" steers itself into territory that sounds a tiny bit like that of Danielle Dax to me. Madeline has a real command of this stuff, and the other players -- Cooper Holmes, drummer John Spiegel, and multi-instrumentalist Kiran Fernandes -- keep up admirably. There's an Elephant 6 connection to note for Spiegel and Fernandes, and one can hear a link there in terms of vibe in some of these selections.
At their best, Immaterial Possession manage to make this fairly compelling, even as the stylistic stew here has the potential to be overwhelming. A highlight for me was "Current in the Room", a number that suggests that band's been spending time with Helium's masterpiece, The Magic City from 1997. While that one found a band bending a style to its will, Mercy of the Crane Folk finds a group trying on a style and running with it. So much of the success of this album is down to how Polites' voice navigates the genre leaps, and that is reason enough to pay attention to this, and keep an eye and ear out for what's next from this Athens crew.
Mercy of the Crane Folk by Immaterial Possession is out this week from Fire Records.
[Photo: Jessica Gratigny]