Gig Reviews: Valleymakers - Lovely Little Songs about Death

by ralexander

Lovely Little Song about Death

My first encounter with Valleymakers

By Alexander Ross

On a non-discript backstreet in the trendy cosmopolitan quarter of Montreal, sits an authentic dank Canadian pub – filled with beer swilling, flannel shirt wearing, ginger bearded, red hockey capped truckin' and huntin' folk. It was on the little stage of this misplaced drinking hole that I first experienced the fledgling Valleymakers.

The earthy sounds of the double bass seamlessly entwine with the guitars and entangle with the violin, coaxing the listener into a dangerously intoxicating day dream. There is a sparkle in eyes of the band's two pretty-as-a-picture porcelain dolls as they sing tales of murder and misfortune.

Their show is comparable to the original Brothers Grimm fables, spun into a beautifully layered web of elegant string parts (with a splash of french horn and dash of flute). Valleymakers lure the audience into a deliciously dark and eerie world with enticing harmonies and delightful melodics, dancing over deeply sinister and unsettling undertones.

Sitting, sipping my bitter dark ale, I studied the crowd of shadowy faces. My head was swimming and there was a peculiar taste in my mouth...

This is the work of four professionally trained and highly talented artists, who know exactly the effect their music is having on their bewildered listeners, and who are taking a perverse pleasure from the whole unsavoury business. Its folk music, or rather folklore, incorporating strands of country, maritime and classical sounds, with various literary ties and biblical misappropriations.

Oh! The melody – irresistible as the Pied Piper flute – driving a perfect innocent to commit crimes so heinous and unnatural as can not be spoken. Like some sort of cultist Armish neo-Pagan whatnot, this music creates the atmosphere of a small town left too long to its own devices, where devoted townsfolk driven mad by the sweet-as-honey music offer up their children for sacrifice before a twisted false god. Mischievous forest creatures, these Valleymakers be. Sirens, water spirits, here to entice us into their arms and then down – down to a slimy watery death.

But not tonight – the music ends, the ale runs dry and I am left to stumble home, with a distrusting eye on every shadow, but humming a sweet sweet tune.

Valleymakers will play at the Yellow Door on Jan 29.

http://www.myspace.com/valleymakers