The Crackling, Ashen

There is an album that I've been listening to endlessly this week. It's called Ashen by Vancouver based project, The Crackling, released on May 22nd via File Under: Music.

Imagine the sound of a fire catching a pile of wood in the fireplace, slowly demolishing the figure of the wood and collapsing into ashes. This process of the natural occurring along with the different stages of the sounds is what Kenton Loewen conceptualized in his new project.

Loewen is best-known as a supporting drummer for various artists, including Mother Mother and Dan Mangan. Being the behind-the-scene guy for the past decade, he has channeled his focus on guitar and songwriting with this project. He has hosted various fellow musicians on this project. This EP, consists of five songs, which will lead to a full album release later on this year.

In this EP, Loewen recruited the Vancouver Chilren's Choir (in Keep Me Drunk) and Dan Mangan (in Ashen.) He has also included a cover of Suicide Is Painless, aside from his originals. My favorite song of the album is Keep Me Drunk. This acoustic tune is a soulful slow song. The harmony by the Vancouver Children's Choir cannot be done any better than this, extracting the accumulated feeling toward the ending of the song. There is a short documentary of the song. This song is not literally saying" Keep me Drunk", rather it is Loewen's message to keep him more excited or interested, a metaphor of a love. I cannot wait to hear this song in person. I hope the Crackling will go on a tour very shortly.