Brightblack Morning Light- Motion To Rejoin (2008)

One album I thought went largely unnoticed in 2008 was Brightblack Morning Light’s Motion To Rejoin. Brightblack Morning Light is primarily the work of Nathan Shineywater and Rachael Hughes who specialize in jazzy psychedelic folk. After being discovered by Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy (with whom the band did a split record with in 2004), Shineywater and Hughes apparently abandoned civilization to live in tents in northern California. Not weird enough for you? Brightblack Morning Light also encourages their fans to bring crystals to their live shows. At its core, Motion To Rejoin (which was recorded using solar energy) is Shineywater on guitar and vocals and Hughes on keyboards, though the record boasts contributions from instrumentalists
who have played with TV On The Radio and Bob Dylan.

Motion To Rejoin is about as psychedelic and engulfing as the four feathers and vast ocean featured on its album art. “Introduction” starts off the record with a few sparse bursts of organ before moving into the album’s first track, “Hologram Buffalo.” “Hologram Buffalo” is a mix of snaking guitar lines, thunderous blasts of horns and bass, twinkling organ and Shineywater’s signature wispy vocals, this time significantly fortified by robust female backing vocals. The album sounds more jazzy than it does folky, with its use of repetitive song structure and smooth horn section. The record always seems to have a different effect on me. On one hand, it’s a bombastic, slow moving glacier of an album, with each shrill blare of trumpet or cryptic lyric giving it a more apocalyptic, haunting aura. On the other hand, Motion To Rejoin is a beautifully eclectic album that, despite the fact that the tracks are indistinguishable from one another, captures the listener’s attention from start to finish. What’s even better though, is that there is a message behind all the weirdness. “Nobody wants oppression, we don’t need oppression,” moans Shineywater over “Oppressions Each,” the band’s most concise track and best starting point. Shineywater explains the motives behind Motion To Rejoin on the Matador website:

“Previous to this recording, while BBML toured Europe, singer Naybob Shineywater sang each show with an arrowhead in his mouth. Why? To let his own sung words & breathe touch this stone before european ears could hear them. "I was not singing for war, but to engage the spirit of the maker of the arrowhead itself, to offer up Peace, that his warrior effort find a new respect, and to help my own warrior spirit sing in Peace," reveals Naybob. After returning from the european tour a chance to move in to an adobe on a secluded enchanted mesa came to Naybob. With only 4 solar panels, it matched his desire to live in a meager way while making the 2nd BBML LP. "Motion To Rejoin" is anti nuclear & coal, but also aligned with the phases of the sun. "With only 4 solar panels you are entirley dependent upon how much the sun is shining," informs Naybob.

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Marijuana is a native herb from North America & a progressive society should include it's legalization, this debate can only be renewed when lies about it have been answered with truths, by now we know that most responsible pot smokers are not criminal, to the contrary, they actually care about Peace & Unity in ways that help define true Freedom!"

Dude’s got the right idea. Check out Brightblack Morning Light on myspace or click the album artwork to sample Motion To Rejoin.

Recommended if you like: Six Organs Of Admittance- Luminous Night, Pocahaunted- Island Diamonds, Beach House- Devotion