Siskiyou – Keep Away The Dead

  • October 26, 2011

Canadian band Siskiyou has struggled to shed their identity as simply a splinter faction of the indie-folk band Great Lake Swimmers. It is now a year after their debut, and the duo of Colin Huebert (drums) and Erik Arnesen (guitars) have expanded into a quartet with the addition of Shaunn Watt and Peter Carruthers, as heard on their sophomore album, Keep Away The Dead. Recorded in a rural British Columbia town last winter, the ten dark, death-fixated songs include a cover of the Charles Manson inspired song “Revolution Blues” by Neil Young. The frigid, isolated landscape is reflected well in the sparse and at times, taut, folk-rock songs, with violent inclusions of sharp instrumentation – strings, horns, banjo, even feedback and noise. What results is a bleak but brave album by a young group finding their own footing. – Written by SMarx

SIMILAR | Bruce Peninsula, Evening Hymns, Great Lake Swimmers, Peter Wolf Crier, Vandaveer