This morning, we are joined by dear guest Weirs. Across projects, the Hillsborough-based collective weaves together micro-folk, traditional ballads, and experimental noise. The band’s releases at once capture the soul of old-time Appalachian music and carve open new potentials for its future. Traditions can be traced along many song structures, but then just as quickly, these familiar edges fray and new frontiers open their arms to us.

Their latest album, Diamond Grove, weaves together and shifts across synthesizers, tape loops, mouth harps, midis, turkey and buck calls, banjos, sheet metal, and more. A canon of traditional songs is both revived and reimagined, embraced and pushed to its proper inflection point, rendered and extended as its own site for deconstruction.

Oliver Child-Lanning of Weirs has curated today’s playlist with care, and your morning’s listening crosses new traditions, site-based specialties, and the unpredictable delights of intricate improvisation.

Guest’s selection

Chaz Knapp - wm jan23 24 (i)

Weirs: “ A contemporary practitioner of the minimal, place-based recording practice that Diamond Grove was striving for. Chaz recorded these brief missives to tape outside in the dead of winter, allowing the distortion of environmental sounds and warping strings to become part of the product. This particular piece is a mantra-like guitar-and-vocals tune reminiscent of Mount Eerie’s Dawn (another winter record) or the early work of caroline (especially the incredible B-side ‘BRJ’) but overlaid with the rush of cold water and distorted by the guitar detuning from the cold. If you like this one, check out the Microfolk series Chaz did with Courtney who plays on the Weirs record. ”

Dariush Dolat-Shahi - Razm

Weirs: “ One of my favorite records from Smithsonian Folkways. Computer oscillators, sample-based loops, and traditional Iranian stringed instruments intertwine to create a haunting yet also undeniably grooving album. This record along with american sources like Flynt and Conrad are foundational texts in Weirs World; both in the way they weave traditional forms with ideas from “art music,” and how they use iteration on folk melodies as a deconstructive/transcendent tool. “

Green Plum Ensemble - The Heavenly Music - Cool of the Day

Weirs: “ Spare, a cappella singing reminiscent of their source Jean Ritchie or contemporary interpreters like House and Land is interrupted by blasts of discordant woodwind and brass. This is what I imagine the depiction of Death from the Seventh Seal has on his headphones while walking around. I believe the Philadelphia group Green Plum Ensemble is no longer performing but the members are worth following. Everything Sweet Wreath puts out is worth listening to, Weirs members are especially fond of Silica Gel and Vernal Scuzz. ”

Curator’s selection

Weirs - Edward

Sarah: “ This track arrives from Diamond Grove, the band’s latest album. The release opens the meeting place for field recordings, cassette tape loops, and that special magic of musicians who speak the same language across instruments. These sweet, unfurling ripples of dissonance mingle with the slight static and hums of analog feedback, running alongside the singular smoothness of these vocals and the pump organ, which seem to call out to us, beckoning. ”

Grace Rogers - Downstream

Sarah: “ The closing track on Grace Rogers’ EP Cowpocalypse, a poetic and sharp experimental folk album inspired by the industrial agriculture and freaky floodwaters of northeastern Kentucky. The album is a delight to discover, as is her latest work, Mad Dogs. Release after release, her works strike the balance between the imaginative, the haunting, and the hopeful.”

Brown Wimpenny - Old Molly Metcalfe

Sarah: “ This track arrives from the 11-piece folk ensemble’s album, Long Live Brown Wimpenny. In this release, the Manchester-based group collects and reinterprets traditional tunes picked up from local pub sessions and source recordings. As the band describes, each track reintroduces forgotten folk characters, sharing the tales and tidings of shepherds, steelworkers, and sailors. ”

Jordan O’ Jordan - Speed of Light

Sarah: “ The final track of the day – a soft, velvety embrace to close out our morning listening. The closing track from the Pacific northwest collective Well, I Don’t See Why Not’s second volume (released in 2010). These overlapping loops both cascade over each other and spread into an expanse before us, drawing a certain splendour at once intimate and just out of reach. ”

Thank you for joining us ! We are so delighted to welcome dear guest Weirs to MailTape. Our love to the band and Oliver Child-Lanning for joining us. Thank you to Pierre-Julien Fieux for this episode’s gorgeous artwork. Until next time :) !