October 2025 AOTM

Old Saw - The Wringing Cloth

Tracks 12

Runtime 1hr 13mins

Favorite Tracks Tilt of the Lamp, Long Distance Engraving, Lacustrina, Mock Silver, Aproxmare

 

Despite my homosexual tendencies and my transgender approach to art, I’ve never been the hugest fan of noise music. Fused with other genres the texture and composition stylings of noise music can elevate music to near divinity, but noise and harsh noise on its own is never going to be a first choice for me. The one exception to this however, is ambient noise. Artists like Aphex Twin, Oneohtrix Point Never, and Tim Hecker have taught me so much about how much detail and care can be expressed in music that sounds so simple.

A recent fixation of mine has been ambient country and Americana. I’ve been playing Dust Devils, a Wild West TTRPG, with some friends in my spare time, and our setting is Arizona, 1895. With no magic, no frills, just the Wild West, setting the tone has been instrumental in telling an engaging story. For this reason, Ripton Vermont based band Old Saw has had a permanent residence in my speakers. Their 2021 album Country Tropics is nothing short of a masterpiece. 4 songs, 38 minutes, 4 of the most beautiful song titles I’ve ever heard, 4 pieces of the most beautiful string composition I’ve ever heard. The fiddle’s hum and whine dances around slide guitars, an organ grinds in and out over everything like breath, every pluck of string is so full of flavor, you feel every buzz every tap of steel.

I didn’t think it was possible, but somehow with this album Old Saw have outdone themselves. The Wringing Cloth, said to be their final album, very nearly sheds that ambient genre classification. It never demands your attention, but it acts as nature does. When you find yourself hundreds of miles outside any city, in the dead of night, you look up, and see more stars than you’ve ever seen. Slowly but surely nothing else matters. It’s not the size of the sky that transfixes you. It’s not the way the stars shimmer, or that more keep appearing the longer that you look, it’s that they Are. They exist so undeniably. What else is there to look at?

That’s really what makes this album so special for me, that soundscape design. It’s so delicate, so beautifully crafted, every instrument every tiny sound placed deliberately. It feels like if I turn my head, or take just a step in any direction, I will feel each set piece move, each rock tree and river exactly where I first saw it, just as undisturbed as it was a thousand years ago.

One of my favorite tracks is Long Distance Engraving. Audiotapes click playing a compressed drone, a fiddle joins in weaving around them. The production is small and simple, deep and close like the walls of a cave wrapping around you. But at the two minute mark it slowly opens, treble frequencies coming in like a stone rolling back from the caves mouth, sunlight flowing in glittering and thick like honey. Soft guitar strums, rustling percussion, and rushes of wind join and you find yourself outside, stunned by the sheer existence of everything. You can shut your eyes, block your ears, but it’s all around you, and it is, it indisputably is. What else is there to do but look?

The Wringing Cloth is a space you can get lost in, a space you can live in. It pulls you into the present and lets you rest for a while. It invites you to peer over the edge and watch the past and the nebulous future as it boils, all ghosts and writhing color, unfathomably vast but unable to touch you. It is not yet. It has not been for a very long time. There is only you, and the stars to join.

 

Other Albums from this month I enjoyed

Hail the Sun - cut. turn. fade. back.

  • Guitar and vocal forward post-hardcore emo. Fans of Peirce the Veil will love this it's so much fun. 

Alice Phoebe Lou - Oblivion

  • Alice Phoebe Lou returns with a much softer approach to her already soft style. She has such a beautiful voice and this album strips away almost everything except for that. I think I liked Shelter better but I have never appreciated her voice more than I did hearing this album.

Reagan Garrett - Taint Worship

  • A little bit spacey, a little bit folky, this alt-rock album has so much lyrical density and somehow all of it is so good. In her first full length release she has already proven her skill at crafting atmosphere. If you ever find yourself on a long bus ride at night through the rain, let this album accompany you, you wont regret it.

Aidan Robinson - love yourself or die !

  • If you've spent any time with drunk Saoirse at some point in the past year you have likely heard me talk about TikTok based folk musician hahaweiner420. Well he is here with his first full length album and a name I don't have to immediately follow up with "WAIT HEAR ME OUT". He so casually delivers some of the best lyrics I've ever heard. I've heard a lot of alternative folk music this year but I think this may be the best traditional country album I've heard. 

Candelabro - Deseo, Carne y Voluntad

  • It's been a huge year for Art Rock, and coming from seemingly out of nowhere this Chilean band has placed themselves firmly in the front of the pack among the likes of Black Country, New Road and Racing Mount Pleasant. The Jazz influences on this album are so well utilized. 

Not for Radio - Melt

  • With very little fanfare, Marías lead singer María Zardoya has released a solo project. Its a perfect mix of the softer side of The Marías and Beach House style dream pop.

The Last Dinner Party - From the Pyre

  • Another Art Rock powerhouse from seemingly out of nowhere. This one is very similar to the most recent Black Country, New Road so if you like May Kershaw you will love this album.

 

Other Albums from this month I enjoyed 

Thornhill - BODIES

  • Its been a while since I've heard a good metalcore release and this scratches every itch. Heavy, super spacious guitar riffs, flying clean vocals, it's a 37 minute long dopamine rush.

Deep Thrill - How Deep Is Your Thrill?

  • Like the Hellp meets the Dare meets Carpenter Brut. Its only an EP and somehow has so much in it. Ripping synthwave riffs, COIN style indie rock hooks, EDM drops, I can't wait to see what a full release would look like.