I guess it's no surprise that a band named The Cave Singers spend a good deal of time beyond the darkened edges of their hometown of Seattle. A name like that projects visions of rustic, primitive sounds that are far, far away from the mainstream. It really should come as no surprise then that their album, No Witch, is pretty much exactly what you would think it would be...simplistic, rustic, folky, and bizarre. While not necessarily the feel good hit of 2011, the album is bound to be one of the more pastoral releases of the year.
With the occasional dip into rock and roll, The Cave Singers seem to peer their head into modern times but quite honestly spend more time living off of the land in a time somewhere around the late 19th century. No Witch is backwoods, rough, and austere. This is a record that seems like it would be more at home in the Blue Ridge Mountains rather than fifteen miles outside of the grunge capital of the universe. No Witch is interesting stuff that takes pride in it's simple pleasures and treasures them to the point where it's those things that makes the record tolerable. I guess it's fair to call this folk music but not in a depressed singer songwriter way, this is folk music from the mountains and the hard life that comes from living there.
While I'm pretty sure that the members of The Cave Singers are not actually feral musicians eating squirrel for dinner, the songs that they concoct on No Witch certainly sound like they do. From the primal rock of, "Black Leaf," to the hippified bongos of, "Falls," No Witch is an album that revels in it's simplicity and lack of polish. No Witch is music in it's purest most unspoilt state, played by a band that sounds like they just found out what electricity is. Folk music has never rocked, without actually rocking as much as this. It's time to head for the mountains...just don't forget to bring The Cave Singers with you.
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