Review from Now Then Magazine
Singing Knives Records has been operating in Sheffield since 2005. Home of all things psychedelic and avant garde, they specialise in folk, jazz and noise with a weird tribal junkyard edge. Thoughts From Screeching Lake is their second compilation and features some label mainstays like Pekko Käppi, Harappian Night Recordings and Alberorovesciato.
The tracklist is shaped a bit like a pyramid, starting with shorter atmospheric improv tracks before building to longer, more involving pieces. Pekko Käppi’s ‘Yhtenä päivänä Kompastuit’ is the first track to leap out. Käppi plays the Jouhikko (Finnish-Karelian bowed lyre to me and you), creating a drone background for his free-form mantric vocal lines. Stephanie Hladowski’s ‘The Seven Virgins’ is another more accessible piece, boasting a distinctly freak folk sentiment with an English twist and varied instrumentation. Elsewhere, things get really strange.
It’s fair to say not everyone will ‘get’ this understated, mutant child of a compilation, but those who do will enjoy trying to decrypt its latent charm.
Sam Walby, Now Then Magazine