THE CRADLE "Endless Room for Error” C16 (Self-Released)

I hereby submit to you a soniconspiracy theory:

The Cradle’s “ERFE” is, perhaps, NOT simply a nod toward his fellow Big Apple’r,
the cult-classic sound viking…the inimitable…MOONDOG…
but it is rather a frantic, technologically-tweak’d declaration of NYC lineage;

Let us observe the phenotype:
-Infinite hand-drum barrages that refuse dynamic nuance yet groove anyway? For fucking sure.
-Behemoth, slippery time signatures that beg a second set of syncopated counters to even fucking realize what is going on? Sorry, still nodding along in concentrated calculation. I think so?
-Unapologetic, mantric loopage for daze and daze and daze? Uhhh…what? Uhh, yes…
-Okay, so the spoken word passages aren’t nearly as articulate, or poignant in theme or delivery, but the sincerity is still there. Check, goddamnit!

Am I reading into all of this too much? Could this maybe be just a buncha weirdo loops being haphazardly stacked one atop the next to be explored by an otherwise notoriously brilliant, finger-picking folksinger? Is this all just some freak accident? Or Does this wildly inaccessible set of angular loops and atonal hooks sound all too familiar, despite those 21st century digital replacements; is this all proof of some deep-seeded legacy, finally bearing fruit?! I hereby submit that it’s suspect enough to warrant a DNA test.

https://thecradle.bandcamp.com/album/endless-room-for-error

  --Jacob An Kittenplan

THE CRADLE

THE CRADLE “Bodies Coiled Around Themselves Drink the Water” (self-released Feeding Tube)

Dear nerds. Question. What’s the point of sending two records by the exact same artist in the same batch? Because guess what – here’s the same review, except with some minor changes. What do you want me to do, honestly?

“Paco’s music is much more interesting than I expected it to be. Terrible moniker (The Cradle?), terribly produced “j-card.” better produced j-card than Bodies Coiled – that’s what not self-releasing will get you, I guess. What do you do? Hope it’s not another garbage fire that’ll ruin yet another cassette player. Well, I’ve got good news for all of you on the other side of this: my tape player still works. Still spitting out music, sometimes like a real jerk, like a jackass. That’s the stuff I don’t like. Paco – well, he somehow channels a wide-eyed innocent version of the brothers Kinsella, sometime before Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain. It’s pleasantly indie, pleasantly low-key emo, and all around bookwormy in the neatest of ways. Get past the “book-by-its-cover” nonsense my undisguised cynicism if you really want to live your life like an American Football. An AMERICAN FOOTBALL. Get it? They just put out a new album not too long ago. Owen.”

Going to sleep now. In my man cradle, i.e. big boy bed.

https://thecradle.bandcamp.com/

http://feedingtuberecords.com/

--Kinsellas

THE CRADLE “Bodies Coiled Around Themselves” (self-released)

Paco’s music is much more interesting than I expected it to be. Terrible moniker (The Cradle?), terribly produced “j-card.” What do you do? Hope it’s not another garbage fire that’ll ruin yet another cassette player. Well, I’ve got good news for all of you on the other side of this: my tape player still works. Still spitting out music, sometimes like a real jerk, like a jackass. That’s the stuff I don’t like. Paco – well, he somehow channels a wide-eyed innocent version of the brothers Kinsella, sometime before Joan of Arc, Dick Cheney, Mark Twain. It’s pleasantly indie, pleasantly low-key emo, and all around bookwormy in the neatest of ways. Get past the “book-by-its-cover” nonsense if you really want to live your life like an American Football. An AMERICAN FOOTBALL. Get it? They just put out a new album not too long ago. Owen.

https://thecradle.bandcamp.com/

--Kinsellas

THE CRADLE “Sweet Automatic” and “Is This Okay?” (No Records)

Free-spirited, wild-sounding.  Good voice, clever recording.  It’s got a multi-tracked, one-man-band vibe, but doesn’t sound solitary—this could be performed in a big ensemble.  The production is homemade & astute, deliberately done, tricky usage of strange sounds but always to the effect of sounding good.  In the realm of what you might call “experimental music,” this is more likely just good songs recorded well with gusto.  The song called “automatic” is great, you should listen to it.  The package is inviting, a cozy lone-wolf DIY fly-by-night operation.  Some strangeness with the long-playing tape, the b-side is called “Is This Okay?” which I first took as an irreverent solution to not having a custom tape to dub your album onto: first an over-long silence (“Is This Okay?”  Haha.), then a feedback drone (“Is This Okay?” Haha.), then some raw jams, then a lot more silence.  I figured, “he’s just tossing a tape package together, doing what he can with what he’s got, cool, yeah, definitely okay.”  The bandcamp archive has “Is This Okay?” as an actual album, the raw jams identified as “some of my songs re-recorded with gong-kebyar instrumentation.”  Oh.  I see.  The artwork is great, black & white on shitty paper, hand folded & scissored with a gatefold lyric sheet.  The lyrics are good and I’m glad they’re printed; it really brought me into the listening.  From the tapes that Nick has sent me, this is one of the best yet.

Thecradle.bandcamp.com

--Kevin Oliver