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Holy Sons

MusicBlog

"buried underneath a cloud of hiss."

Location: Portland, OR

Website: http://www.holysons.com/

Bio: Emil Amos is Holy Sons. Holy Sons' minimalist avant-folk sound journeys through formats as varied as dub, church-hymn, slow-jam, tape-collage and hip-hop beats ornamented ... (more) with obtuse banjo-sitar runs, all performed with an inspired punk spirit. The music is organic, dark and beautiful, documenting a constantly evolving songwriter' who possesses a unique gift for distinctive and prolific artistry. His musical resume reads like a dream wish list for most musicians. Outside of Holy Sons, Emil is the new member in the globally renowned Om (Sub Pop / Southern Lord), and a producer/songwriter of his other band Grails (Important Records / Temporary Residence / Neurot Recordings). He has performed both on stage and collaboratively with the likes of Daniel Johnston, Will Oldham, Damo Suzuki, Jandek, J Mascis, Smog, Polvo, Quasi, Sir Richard Bishop, Scout Niblett, Six Organs, Devendra Banhart, Mark Kozelek.
Decline of the West represents a vital intersection of style and method in Emil Amos' songwriting and production. It combines his genre-hopping tendencies and no-rules mixing methods with the more hook-driven, straight-to-the-jugular phrasing that he has been honing for the last 15 years. This makes "Decline.." his most stylistically varied effort to date while balancing a perfect mix of his more challenging sentiments with bigger hooks.

"Decline of the West" is named after and conceptually began with Oswald Spengler's pessimistic assessment that the Western culture is revealing the classic signs of a societies' decay and end. The record was recorded at Amos' home studio in late-night recording sessions that stretched over 3 years where he played every instrument and then mixed and re-mixed each track.
Influenced by the avant German bands of the 70's he used nature recordings, radio transmissions and old Halloween tapes as source material to create slabs of musique concrete-style texture to surround and inhabit the songs. The basic message is an apocalyptic one, with the songs investigating the tensions between 'human nature', capitalistic culture, conformism, the inner self and the inevitable destiny of a society that has values such as ours. (less)