Begushkin - "Nightly Things"

Begushkin - Stroll With Mine (Locust 2007)

Begushkin - Nightly Things / Locust

Yesterday it was death-folk and a kitchen appliance. Today we're declaring the end of post-rock week and capping it off with a little acoustic affection in the form of Brooklyn six-string swooner Dan Smith aka Begushkin. I really don't know how long this review is going to be, but if it winds up particularly short, don't be discouraged. It's just because I cut out the mammoth "Here's the biography and what happened when we last saw Mr. Smith." As you might've discovered for yourself, there's pretty much nothing out there on what Smith has done for most of his life.

This could all be rubbish, but I read somewhere that he was on a sketch comedy show called "Program," which I never saw and can't seem to find anything about... All we know for sure is that the dude works mostly out of Brooklyn and has a ton of friends to help him out with recording and playing. I also get the feeling that he's got a really sardonic sense of humor. Don't hold me to that one, though.

What we know for sure: Nightly Things is a dramatically different take on the whole trad-goth thing that Wolfmangler aptly demonstrated yesterday. Whereas D. Smolken emphasizes the doom and the darkness, Smith's guitar talent and familiar vocal style allow him to bring the traditional folk song sounds forward, not necessarily muddying his voice in the mix or submerging the guitars behind a range of cello-sounding instruments. It's a little more approachable, but it's also a little more comical. "Stroll With Mine," for example, sounds jaunty with its accordion and gypsy-like jive. It's a beautiful song and one of the best on this too-short album, but it sounds so fun to play that Smith's fragile, almost Devendra Banhart-like voice that you hesitate to smile.

Probably the most memorable lyric on the album is "And you can be my monkey girl," which again sounds amusing out of context... But somehow Smith makes "At Night With Me" work as another American Gothic ballad Flannery O'Connor would be proud of. It's the mystical vibe of the fiddle (or maybe the violin?) that's played to balance out the guitars that form the base of every track. A lot of people have been using Will Oldham as a milemarker, but I would rather listen to this. Some of Oldham's albums are just exhausting to listen to... But Nightly Things never threatens to wear out its welcome: At a modest eight songs and 22 minutes, Begushkin's debut instead leaves you begging for just that little bit more.

Because it's so short, every song is vital. A good all-killer-no-filler folk album is hard to come by, but Dan Smith has aimed for the dark forests of the night and hit the ghoulish-looking trees on every shot. Actually, I'm not really sure that means anything... But Begushkin will make you feel like you do. That's power.