Pitchfork

[Posted Tuesday, November 4th, 2003 04:00:00 Pitchfork Central Time]

Brian Howe and Rob Mackey report:
Rivulets, the digital slow-core project revolving around singer/songwriter Nathan Amundson's childhood fetish and simple balladry, is preparing to release a split album with NY musician Marc Gartman (who has worked with Pale Horse and Rider, made a documentary about Low and played with them) on Tract Records. The Rivulets-Low connection is already pretty solid, as Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker played on Debridement, Rivulets' second and most recent album on Chairkickers Union, Low's label.

The split will be available in early November, though you can preview MP3's on Tract's website right now. The project will feature five songs from each artist, all either unreleased or alternate versions of previous material. The Rivulets' half includes a version of "Cutter" remixed by Aarktica, whose John DeRosa also guested on Debridement, and who has also played with Pale Horse and Rider-- a project to which Amundson has also contributed. Damn, this is getting confusing; can someone get me my abacus and a yellow tablet? The Gartman half includes a song called "Luf Kanh Brhak Ur Hrt," followed by "A Grave Mistake," from which any resultant jokes would be just too easy. We're putting you on notice, Gartman. Watch it with the funny stuff.

From the upcoming split, expect downcast, narcotic repetition and breathy vocals that unfold in geological time; expect coffee-shop style singer/songwriter fare adorned in sundry bells and whistles. Expect a tracklist:

01 Rivulets: "Cutter" [featuring Jarboe]
02 Rivulets: "Keep You From Harm"
03 Rivulets: "Happy New Year"
04 Rivulets: "Wind is Howling"
05 Rivulets: "Cutter" [Aarktica remix]
06 Marc Gartman: "Hats and Wools"
07 Marc Gartman: "The Error of My Ways"
08 Marc Gartman: "Roswell"
09 Marc Gartman: "Luf Kanh Brhak Ur Hrt"
10 Marc Gartman: "A Grave Mistake"

Rivulets is also contributing a track to Tract's Eye of the Beholder Vol. 3 compilation, the latest in a series of extremely limited-edition compilations. This third volume is currently available, but at a 500 copy print run, good luck finding it if you didn't preorder. Rivulets, stepping in at zero hour to fill a vacancy, contributed a home-recorded microcassette demo of the unreleased song "Your Light and How It Shined," which appears alongside new material from Devendra Banhart, Marc Gartman, Pale Horse and Rider (see also intricacies; Byzantine interconnections), and The Strugglers. When one considers that Rivulets have also signed on to participate in Tract's upcoming Will Oldham tribute album, the sharp eye detects an emergent pattern. A pattern involving Rivulets DOING EVERYTHING UNDER THE SUN WITH TRACT EXCEPT RELEASING THEIR ACTUAL ALBUMS! OK, I'm sorry. The track... or shall I say, Tract list:

01 Celestine: "Come On"
02 The Struggler: "Fine-Tuned"
03 Bianca: "Loosen Up"
04 Burd Early: "Woken"
05 Diana Darby: "Crazy"
06 Sodastream: "Bring Him Down"
07 Red Admiral: "Becoming a Sun"
08 Boy Omega: "Here the Sharks Swim"
09 Devendra Banhart: "Nature Walks"
10 Marc Gartman: "Las Vegas"
11 Racingpaperplanes: "PQ"
12 Ian Downey: "Now That My Life is Over"
13 The Virginia Reel: "New Song"
14 Pale Horse and Rider: "Annabelle"
15 Homeland: "The Evidence"
16 Rivulets: "Your Light and How It Shined"
17 Adrian Crowley: "Morning Frost"
18 Annika Bentley: "Gloria Wrist"

And finally, Rivulets is also appearing on Blue, the latest installment in a conceptual series curated by San Francisco label Dreams by Degrees, which brings together disparate artists to play songs thematically united according to color. Rivulets will contribute a cover of Big Star's "Blue Moon." Once more:

01 Corbi Wright: "What Can I Give to My Love"
02 Film School: "Sick of the Shame, Part Two"
03 Your Friend: "Love Ate the Wheelbarrow"
04 cobalt
05 Park Avenue Music: "Sun = So Bright"
06 Vela: "Less Panda"
07 powder
08 L'Altra: "Unperfect Storm"
09 cerulean
10 Sir: "It's Not True"
11 Lazarus: "106 Words on Wishes"
12 Vetiver: "You May Be Blue"
13 cornflower
14 Rivulets: "Blue Moon"
15 midnight
16 John Davis: "Unglückt Gebracht"
17 Stratford 4: "Blue Light"
18 winter - spring 03