Album Review // Gwenifer Raymond // Last Night I Heard the Dog Star Bark

We Are Busy Bodies

4.5 / 5 stars

Gwenifer Raymond's most recent release creates a wild landscape where guitars and banjos are corralled by a whisperer who respects the untamed nature of each instrument. This album exhibits the complexity of a physicist trying to mathematically define chaos. Her accomplished guitar finger-picking conjures punk rock jump scares, smoky delta blues shadows, and John Fahey's American Primitive ghosts like magic. A South Wales native, Gwenifer's instrumental voice speaks with an authority heard in the native ancient legends of the British Isles but with an accent often found in traditional Appalachian folk music. It is the same language spoken within classic folk horror pieces like The Wicker Man, Children of the Stones, and Houses of the Holy. Her lonesome dirges and ballads surge into a frenzied unraveling, elevating her work above typical bluegrass picking. Gwenifer creates a droning dervish, relentlessly spinning the tethered listener. She forces one to dig their heels into cool, damp earth while pulling their arms up towards breathless celestial formations. Her work exists outside any specific genre and thrives beyond the fringe. Notable tracks: "Bliws Afon Tâf," "One Day You'll Lie Here but Everything Will," "Cattywomp," and "Bonfire of the Billionaires."