Turquoise

by Headdress

Format: 12" LP 180 gram

Virgin Vinyl

Label: Self Produced

Manufacturer: Mexican Summer (Kemado)

Self Produced

According to their vague MySpace, “Headdress is a mysterious duo of native Texans who have spent the last two years wandering throughout the American West.”

Their first EP, Silence is the Golden Mountain, was written and recorded in the woods along the south fork of the Yuba River in the Nation of Northern California where they lived in tents during the summer of 2006. They only released 100 hand-numbered and hand-sewn copies throughout the Bay Area. After buying a van called Cloud, they headed south and spent time in Big Sur, Cal. as well as Arizona’s Joshua Tree before finding their way into the great American Southwest. This was the birthplace and muse of their first full-length, Turquoise, under the new moniker of Headdress. The album was recorded in 2007 in a hollow hill in the grasslands of the Sonoran Desert under the Moon of Shedding Ponies (May) while living in a RV called “The Golden Horse” AKA Goldie. After the release of Turquoise they headed home to the hills of Texas and caught the attention of NYC’s Kemado Records, who recently released the album with a limited pressing of 500 on their new vinyl-only offshoot, Mexican Summer. The nature lovin’ folkadelic duo are rumored to be temporarily residing in the New York area for the moment and planning a North American tour late October and possibly Europe late November/early December.

Turquoise’s cover art (created by artist Tracy Conti) fits the ethereal album nicely with what is seemingly a design based on Native American folk art (or, cleverly enough, a headdress) with turquoise colored peacock feathers surrounding a full moon. Songs like “Spirit Canyon Medicine Song” are sparse, but poignant with reverb-heavy acoustic guitar and droning vocals. Enjoy the sounds of desert loneliness. (Mexican Summer)

-Brian E. King

www.mexicansummer.com