Brightblack Morning Light

iTunes Review

One of Matador’s newest and most promising acts, Brightblack Morning Light trade in slothful swamp-struck blues and makeshift hymns touched by a healthy dose of hippy mysticism. Brightblack Morning Light differ from popular contemporaries like Feathers and the Skygreen Leopards in important respects; instead of reveling in the delicate textures and studied dissonance of airy Appalachian folk, Brightblack Morning Light, with their warm, bass saturated riffs and mournful brass flourishes, recall the earthbound grooves of classic Memphis soul more than the high flown hollers of mountain-bound folk pickers. Rachel “Raobob” Hughes works her battered Rhodes keyboard like a veteran rhythm player, hunkering down on the low-end of the instrument and deepening the already sonorous grooves of tracks like “Everybody Daylight” and the epic “Star Blanket River Child.” Though occasionally a stray detail, some ramshackle slide guitar work, a measured high hat rush, or ghostly flute riff will rear its head over the morass, Brightblack mostly glory in their own dreamy morphine drip tempos.