Description
Halos & Lassos is an album by the American indie combo Half-Handed Cloud, independently released on Asthmatic Kitty Records in March 2006, distributed by arrangement with Secretly Canadian. The album was recorded and mixed May 2005 by Brandon Buckner at Ears of Corn Studio in Iowa City, Iowa. All songs written and arranged by John Ringhofer.
PROMO
Armed with the psalms of David, an acoustic guitar, and an electronic Omnichord, Half-handed Cloud assails nineteen new pop songs outside Eden’s gates on Halos & Lassos, the latest full-length album on Asthmatic Kitty Records. With hints of fitness music and video game soundtracks, Halos & Lassos festively tromps through 19 songs like a mostly-sunny afternoon in Berkeley, California home of main singer and songwriter John Ringhofer. With the modal purity of Moondog, symphonic elements of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, and the ancient art of punning, the album boasts pleasant acoustic melodies arranged around the ambidextrous Omnichord, a kidney-shaped electronic auto-harp/drum machine/synthesizer from the 1980′s. This odd instrument accounts for much of the unique coloring on the album: accordion-like chords, scrupulous drum beats, pre-set bass-lines, and a rectangular pressure pad strummed for gurgle “effects.”
Recorded/mixed by Brandon Buckner in May 2005 at Ears of Corn Studio in Iowa City, Halos & Lassos is Half-handed Cloud’s fourth full-length album for Asthmatic Kitty. Halos & Lassos showcases John Ringhofer on piano, banjo, marimba, melodian, guitar, bass, bell-kit, trombone, Omnichord, and vocals, joined by Brandon Buckner on drums, and percussion and Wendy Buckner on Bass Clarinet.
At less than 30 minutes, the album’s brevity is trumped by its generosity of material. Biblical allusions, sophisticated theology, and lyrical displays of affection are measured by Ringhofer’s indelible sense of humor, littered with double meanings and symbolic gestures. A wordsmith taking field notes would be a helpful companion. The prophet Isaiah rubs shoulders with picnic tablecloths and public transportation, as calibrated by Ringhofer’s clever vocal somersaulting and proficient rhyme schemes. Choruses stack tightly against one another like medieval building blocks painted with scenes from daily life and devotion.
> Apple Music (https://music.apple.com/us/album/halos-lassos/309790495)
CD tracklist:
01. Earth Outside Of Ghost Will Only Be Quicksand
02. Tongues That Possess The Earth Instead
03. Foot On The Brake
04. A Suit Of Clouds To Ride The Skies
05. Praise Awaits You
06. Rise To The Heavens On Evaporation
07. A Picnic Few Would Want To Attend
08. In You Now, But Still Below
09. Eyes Peeled
10. You Wouldn’t Embarrass Me, Would You?
11. You’ve Been Faithful To Us Clouds
12. Skip The Rope
13. Celebrating Hearts Aligned
14. They’re Bad, But We’re Worse
15. A Bed That Breathes With Him
16. Feed Your Sheep A Burning Lamp
17. Rainbow = Warbow
18. A Tree Replanted Back In Eden
19. Place Your Wind Against My Sails
Note: Available at Bandcamp: https://half-handedcloud.bandcamp.com/album/halos-lassos
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