It’s no secret that I love me some folk music. My first exposure to folk music was pretty much every black metal fan’s first exposure to folk music–via neofolk music. After bands like Death in June taught me the joys of 3 chords, strummed with no distortion, over vocals of dubious merit, and accompanied by lyrics of dubious brilliance, I was quickly woke enough to actively seek out the kind of stuff all the neofolk musicians were copying. Today’s song is a youtube discovery (I’m pretty sure I typed in “obscure folk that will make me feel elite and special for having discovered it” or something like that in the search field–even though apparently Mick Softley was kind of a big deal in the folk scene and I suspect that this song is not actually obscure at all) that I instantly identified as “one of mine”:
The simple, descending minor chord progression, forlorn vocals, and laid back vibe really make “Time Machine” shine. The whole song positively wallows in the kind of overcast day/melancholy epic shit that I just eat right up. And, when I stopped and listened to the lyrics, I only loved it more. I, mean lines like this are just great:
Where were you,
When we roamed down the plains,
Dancing in the wind,
And laughing in the rain.
But, let’s be honest, this was the stuff that really both made me roll my eyes and give a delighted giggle:
Where were you,
When we all were elves,
Laughing and playing,
Just being ourselves.
Honestly, if you take all this into consideration, black metal, neofolk, or not, there was no way I was going to get through life without becoming a folk fan. And I haven’t even gotten into the fact that any song that uses whips is a near auto-include in MKM!
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