Watching and listening to the vast surreal peaks and valleys of "Daisy Bed" by Baltimore, Maryland's avant psychedelic folk outfit Curving Tooth as imagined by The Witch Twins, Slovenian queer video artists and divergent designers Robi & Alen Predanic, and it is a weird immersive experience. It is like it all makes sense and doesn't at the very same time. Sonically, the vastness in and of itself might push buttons that haunt you. It feels eerily beautiful, stirring up baroque pop tones filtered in a sort of art rock way, utterly psychedelic and otherworldly. I thought of the artistry and imagery of Bjork, of David Bowie and Klaus Nomi and the operatic alien scene in The Fifth Element.
Curving Tooth is a collaborative project between artist / singer-songwriter Liz Downing (Lambs Eat Ivy, Radiant Pig, Mole Suit Choir) and producer / multi-instrumentalist Greg Hatem (Natural Velvet, Moth Broth). Greg has reimagined Downing's folk songs curated from various projects from the 1980's - 2000's and as press notes indicate: Many of the instruments on the record are built from samples of Liz's voice and banjo (plucked and bowed), altered and re-performed to create new environments.
"Daisy Bed" is the kind of song that had my head spinning a bit. Downing's vocal aesthetic is complexly drawn like her lyrical content. Her melodic vocal shapes had me flash on both rustic sort of Appalachian roots music as well as the sliding nature of Indian gamakas and Arabian music. Her style is both soothing and mysterious and while I can imagine the song performed only on voice and banjo, Hatem has artfully twisted it into something else. While it in it's original context, it may of felt like running down escapist rabbit holes, it now feels like those rabbit holes are on another planet entirely. The surreal bent (and bent again) with stalking ambient sounds, sparkling bell tones, a sort of wedding march cadence and crystalline orchestrations feel amazingly organic though I imagine much of the musical passages / interludes are synthetic in nature.
Curving Tooth's eponymous debut album on 20/20 Records contains 12 surreal, magical, diverse songs. While I have not dived in completely (this kind of album should be listened to without distractions from top to bottom) I have peered around it's corners and it is full of whimsy and sideways moments. Just amble through the down home charm and eccentricities of "Lectric Fence" or the grand eulogies of "Serpentine" and you might imagine yourself small and tugging on your mama's skirt as you gaze at a purple spotted cow and say, "mama, I don't think we're in Kansas anymore".
-Robb Donker Curtius
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THE FACTS AS WE KNOW THEM - PRESS NOTES:
Curving Tooth (Baltimore, MD) is a recent collaboration between artist and musician Liz Downing (of Lambs Eat Ivy, Radiant Pig, Mole Suit Choir) and producer and multi-instrumentalist Greg Hatem (of Natural Velvet, Moth Broth).
Their debut LP on 20/20 Records, Curving Tooth is a collection of surrealist folk songs originally composed by Liz in various former bands and projects from the 1980s - 2000s, now reimagined with new production and harmonic context. The songs describe images and scenes from dreams, waking life, and every space in between. Many of the instruments on the record are built from samples of Liz's voice and banjo (plucked and bowed), altered and re-performed to create new environments.
Since forming in early 2021, Curving Tooth has performed at the 2021 Maryland Film Festival, Maryland Art Place, Current Gallery, and other venues.
“Daisy Bed” music video is a collaboration with The Witch Twins (Robi & Alen Predanic of Slovenia), queer video artists and designers. They created original costumes, props, and set pieces to create a psychedelic world for the haunting track.
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Curving Tooth, Baltimore, MD, folk, psychedelic, Gothic folk, psych folk, experimental folk, surreal, avant folk, singer-songwriter, artist, musician, Liz Downing, producer, multi-instrumentalist, Greg Hatem,
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