Changes / Cadaverous Condition - Time (2004)

The Changes & Cadaverous Condition split 10" commonly known as, 'Time' from '04 is one peculiar release. Its not that the material is especially weird, well sort of, but more so the fact that it pairs up the late 60's (later reformed in the 90's) American neo folk duo of Robert N. Taylor and Nicholas Tesluk collectively known as Changes with Austrian death folk (yes, you read that right) band Cadaverous Condition who were formerly a goregrind band.

Changes music is of exceptional beauty and very simple elegance; basically just a fast acoustic guitar and Robert's baritone voice on most songs, though the two sometimes sing together, and on one song a flute is briefly used as well. These two gentlemen know what balladry is all about; fast and catchy songs with tasteful lyrics and superb vocal performance, and although the songs are simple they really are memorable and effect me in a timeless way. It gives me this ancient vibe of sorts, almost like the two of them are playing right in front of me at night around a fire within a deep forest. Four of the five songs follow this path while, 'Universal Soldier' has an odd old school industrial undercurrent to it, but its still an interesting one.

Flipping the LP over we come to the collaborative song, 'Time,' which is an infinitely beautiful little number that features both Robert's voice and Wolfgang Weiss' death growls as well Matt Howden of Sol Invictus and Sieben adds violin to this piece. Cadaverous Condition's three songs follow and they write neo folk in a style similar to Death in June, perhaps the guitar work is slightly more elaborate, but what makes an eyebrow or two raise is the fact that Mr Weiss growls the lyrics. So, basically if you ever wondered what cookie monster folk sounded like CC provides a very clear answer for you. They definitely win points for being unique, additionally the lyrics are quite good, but the whole growled voice thing seems, well... I don't even really know what to say. One of the songs does feature some brief clean vocals as well as some completely misplaced electric guitar, which just makes it all the more eccentric.

Looking back to this year I remember I was obsessed with just about all things neo folk and Changes in particular was one of my favs. Limited to just 500 copies, I'd imagine this LP is long sold out, but if you fancy the genre its definitely worth hunting down for the Changes songs and if you want to hear something different the Cadaverous Condition songs are there too.