Buzzin Music

Blitzen Trapper – Black River Killer EP – album review

Blitzen Trapper : Black River Killer

Blitzen Trapper’s next release will be a collection of old songs released as an EP under the name of the title track ‘Black River Killer’, a track which appeared on 2008’s highly acclaimed Furr. The songs on Black River Killer were recorded during the past nine years and up to now have only been available on CDR at live gigs.
Blitzen Trapper will also head out on tour supporting Americana greats Wilco and last year’s success story Fleet Foxes and certainly the pairings seem appropriate. On Black River Killer the same sort of simply yet brilliantly crafted songs and straightforward delivery are apparent as on most Wilco records. ‘Silver Moon’ could be straight off Yankee Hotel Foxtrot, even though the lyrics tend towards the more poetic (“oh what a silver moon, sings by the light of the room”), and ‘Big Black Bird’ contains the Neil Young hook line and multiple harmonies of  Crosby, Stills and Nash that inspired the Americana tag now associated with both of Blitzen Trapper’s bill-sharers.

Yet strikingly, Blitzen Trapper’s subtler songwriting is also exposed on the EP. The acoustic ‘Shoulder Full Of You’ and ‘Black Rock’ use unconventional chord patterns and melody lines, using additional instruments only for delicate enhancement to the overall sound. The recurring line on ‘Shoulder Full Of You’ “I miss you” cuts dead the building melodies and stands nakedly questioning the complex poetic and naturalist images beforehand “deer tracks on an unmade bed”.

Black River Killer works well as a collection of songs that have been missing release and it neatly keeps their critically appreciated profile raised ahead of a proposed release in 2010. It is, simply put, a demonstration of Bitzen Trapper’s class and the recognition that they could come to deserve alongside the likes of Wilco in the Americana genre. If you thought you could resist going to see Wilco or Fleet Foxes, maybe it’s time to think again.

UK TOUR DATES, AUGUST & SEPTEMBER

Tuesday 25 August – Troxy, London w/ Wilco
Thursday 27 August – Vicar Street, Dublin w/ Wilco
Friday 28 August – Vicar Street, Dublin w/ Wilco
Monday 31 August – Auntie Annies, Belfast
Wednesday 2 September – Cyprus Avenue, Cork
Thursday 3 September – Roisin Dubh, Galway
Sunday 6 September – Electric Picnic, Stradbally, Ireland
Tuesday 8 September – O2 Academy, Glasgow w/ Fleet Foxes
Wednesday 9 September – Academy 2, Newcastle w/ Fleet Foxes
Friday 11 September – Apollo, Manchester w/ Fleet Foxes
Saturday 12 September – End of the Road Festival, North Dorset
Sunday 13 September – Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff – own headline show
Monday 14 September – Barfly, London – own headline show