by Mo Shoshin
Guys, seriously, go listen to Black Milk by Kyle Fischer at End Up Records. You can listen to it steaming or you can download it for free. But please, please, please, go listen to it. You NEED to hear this album.
Kyle has been working on Black Milk almost as long as I've known him. I've been a fan of it and awaiting it's release ever since the first time he brought in rough mixes. I remember way back when, it was briefly titled "On Death and Tutus". Now that's it's finally done and released I am even more proud of it and in love with it. I am awed that after so much work on the record, as well as starting his own record label, and going trough many personal changes, he has decided to let his album be downloaded for free. I love his DIY mentality and I am glad that there are no boundaries (beyond having access to a computer) to this getting this record.
Black Milk is the follow up to Kyle Fischer's first solo record, Open Ground, and shows growth in both his personal life and musicianship. The first track, "Love (Won't Save You)", almost makes fun of the amount he's grown in the four or five years he has been creating the album. The main part of the song talks about how love is meaningless in the face of death, but backing vocals reveal that the singer no longer believes what is being said, and he's glad not to. Black Milk deals with death and rebirth, destruction and growth, as it's main themes, but does it all with a great beat, making the ups and downs of life dance-able. Unlike the deep toned, lonely, droning, and dark, Open Ground, Kyle's second album favors shakers, toe-tapping beats and sweet girl pop singers including Caithlin De Marrais (x Rainier Maria with Kyle. She also appeared on his first album) and The BLOW. Both albums deal with loss and loneliness, but there is a light at the end of Black Milk's tunnel. "Death Letter", the second to last track, sums up life and death in the changing of the seasons, turn, turn, turn. Ultimately Spring turns to Summer, to Fall and then Winter and back again, with Kyle's lap steal guitar guiding you through his/your worst times and back to better ones or vise versa. Black Milk's Last track expresses the idea that life and love go on. It's a sad song, with lovely Caithlin and Pascal (Balthrop, Alabama) singing repeating harmonies of lost love. But at the end we can hear the singers and Kyle laughing, and the joy that they are sharing fills any room. At the heart, despite it's sadness, Black Milk is about hope. One finds themselves listen to heart ache but smiling and thinking about what life has to offer. It's an wonderful and inspiring record.
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