There’s that thing about vinyl. That ritual thing of removing the twelve inches of anachronistic plastic from its sleeve and placing it on a spinning device before dragging a tiny piece of diamond through its miniscule grooves. It’s practically a religious ceremony and one that seems out of place in these iPod shuffling days. However, Caethua’s “The Summer Is Over Before It’s Begun” album seems so very comfortable with such treatment.
As albums go, this one can definitely be classed as atmospheric. Caethua – Claire Hubbard and Andy Neubauer – have taken a drifting yet mystically charming approach to presenting their songs that takes them towards the dark folk genre whilst never actually getting there (although “The Summer Is Over” gets close). Whilst the lyrics betray little interest in religious iconography, the overall effect – subtly reinforced by, for example, the chanting underpinning “The Setting Of My Sleep” – tends towards the devotional.
I’d also say that this is an album that is somewhat incongruous in these high speed, too busy to talk so tweet me days. The pacing is no faster than a gentle stroll and the minimalist arrangements leave plenty of time to look around and enjoy the metaphorical musical view. Just like a walk through the forest at dawn really.
Listening to this album in its entirety is the way to go for, by the time you get to the Anahita styled ambient experimentation of “Surface Waters and Underground Seas”, you will have fallen under the spell of a witch misplaced into modern times where she does not belong even though she was only born yesterday.
The pressing quality of the review copy was only average but the sound quality was perfectly acceptable. The LP comes with a full colour lyric insert.