Spectre Folk is a name i’ve heard buzzing around, but for whatever reason I didn’t investigate until yesterday. Sound of the City interviewed Nolan and posted a song, “Burning Bridge,” which I now can’t stop listening to. The track is off his latest record, Compass, Blanket, Lantern, Mojo, out on his label Arbitrary Signs.

Magik Markers was one of my favorite bands on 2006. I went to a Halloween show they played with Orca Age, then JP05, at Cambridge’s All Asia club. I was dressed like Cleopatra and Elisa Ambrogio told me I looked great when we ran into each other in the bathroom. As much as Elisa is the center of that band, Nolan, as drummer, was the beating heart. Without him, her squealing squalls would be untempered.

Nolan’s work at Spectre Folk is a different beast altogether. In Nolan’s words:

Nolan says he wrote the track to deal with his feelings of isolation, desperation, and sleep deprivation after becoming a new parent. He explains, “In this altered state of consciousness I interpreted my daughter’s cries–being as she was, a total newcomer to the planet earth, incapable of putting personal attachment to her thoughts and feelings–as the pure sound of the universal consciousness heralding both her entry into the world and my passage into the next level of the game. That’s the idea anyway. Can you dig it?”

Nolan’s slight slacker strum and nasal voice are literally, utterly, charming. Sing this to me, i’ll definitely fall asleep…

Spectre Folk: Burning Bridge