David Thomas Broughton - The Complete Guide to Insufficiency

Although he has built a strong fan base in the Leeds music scene, David Thomas Broughton's fractured, off-kilter folk has yet to gain the notoriety of other psych folk revivalists. His debut album, The Complete Guide to Insufficiency, on new label Birdwar Records, should change that. Over the course of five songs and just under forty minutes, Broughton firmly establishes himself as a compelling new artist who deserves to be mentioned alongside Devandra Banhardt, Current 93, Espers, and Six Organs of Admittance. Recorded in one take in Wrangthorn Church in Leeds, the record attempts to capture the atmosphere of Broughton's live sets, which maintain a precarious balance between control and chaos. On the opening track, “Ambiguity,” Broughton's tightly plucked acoustic guitar and otherworldly vocals provide an anchor for the listener as waves of electronic dissonance roll in and threaten to submerge anything approaching traditional song structure. “Unmarked Grave” and “Walking Over You” are somewhat more conventional, but each song follows the same basic formula. While some people may find this repetition a bore, others will be pulled in by the hypnotic, meditative quality it creates. Broughton’s experiments balancing electronic white noise with acoustic guitar draw immediate comparisons to Ben Chasny’s Six Organs of Admittance. Broughton's guitar playing is not as complex as Chasny's, but his eerie vocals and distinctive songwriting add to his appeal. His voice sounds like it rises out of the Leeds hills, a more organic version of Antony's harrowing falsetto. Lyrically, Broughton tends to focus on the territory mapped out by traditional murder ballads. On “Unmarked Grave” he sings, “My body rots / While she is weeping / I remain forever sleeping / Rest my bones from the daily chores / Rest my bones forever more.” The tension between lyrics dealing with the corporeal and music that sounds disembodied and surreal keep the songs from languishing. With The Complete Guide to Insufficiency Broughton has managed to create an album that sounds both timely and timeless—a remarkable debut for Broughton and Birdwar Records. [www.birdwar.com]