Communipaw’s June release Mountain Flower is folk with a deep pocket, dad rock with a breakbeat push. Five original love songs plus a cover of old-school jazz pianist Clarence Williams’s “My Bucket’s Got a Hole In It” all verge on self-indulgent, but they land on the right side of self-aware. Rhythmic variety and impeccably-placed melodies elevate basic pop forms to a set of recordings that have been under-appreciated, the highlight being the title track, where subtle pedal steel and expansive drums complement the affecting vocals. A layer of dust audibly graces all the tracks, recorded to tape on a TEAC A-3340S 1/4” four-track, and this layer of mediation distances the songs from the blues and country traditions they’ve appropriated. The aesthetic here has definitely been stolen from someone, but the songs suggest that what goes around comes out in the wash, eventually.
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