Monday, February 15th, 2010

MINOR KINGDOM – My Back Will Bend

reviewed by Luke Winkie

A thickset forest, a murky attic, a neutral river running indifferently next to a log cabin, and the eclipsed back room in every aloof guitar shop. Such is the music of Minor Kingdom’s mastermind Kristian Melom, a well-bearded, Minnesota-based singer-songwriter whose debut record My Back Will Bend strives for the same sort of disaffiliation rust-folk heroes Sun Kil Moon and Bonnie “Prince” Billy founded an entire career on. Each of the 10 songs are openly slow-paced, usually guided by little more than a gently strummed guitar and Melom’s own downhearted tenor.

Kristian isn’t the first person to do the whole “isolation over convivial” thing (the now-legendary Bon Iver’s fame burgeoned out of the somewhat mythical origins of his enterprise), but he’s probably one of the most effective. Apparently recorded in a myriad of obscured, intimate locations, Melom allows the surroundings to spill into his music in a deliciously subtle way. A sparsely echoed harmonica, a distant harmony, a few creaky floorboards, the tracks sound like they’re coming from the dark corners of a lamp-lit bedroom or the fuzzy edges of a projected slide. It has a profound effect; expect to hear more from this kid in the future.

(Grain Belt Records, PO Box 18620, Minneapolis, MN 55418)