Milkweed - Folklore 1979 (2024)

On Milkweed’s Folklore 1979, tape hiss, false starts, and esoteric tales gathered from a ‘70s folklore journal are repackaged into 11 minutes of lo-fi backbeats that deconstruct the notion of folk. According to Milkweed, anything can become folklore, as they told The Quietus earlier this month. The mysterious duo (known only as G and R) call themselves “slacker trad,” but the irruption of various samples and spoken word segments among tradfolk vocal stylings might be called plunderfolk. These snippets rarely adhere to a unified set of formal conventions—a radio segment on the extinction and subsequent return of horses in America precedes vocalist G’s noisy wail on “The Legend of the Pacing White Mustang,” while “Letter to the Editor: Fairy Gold” layers a lilting flute melody and twinkling chimes over a pensive drone.

Tracklist:
1.01 - Milkweed - My Father's Sheep is Dead (2:49)
1.02 - Milkweed - The Legend of the Pacing White Mustang / Letter to the Editor: Missing Chapbook Texts (1:44)
1.03 - Milkweed - The Snake in Chinese Belief / A Letter from the President (1:37)
1.04 - Milkweed - Mordred, King Arthur's Son (1:37)
1.05 - Milkweed - Letter to the Editor: Fairy Gold (0:44)
1.06 - Milkweed - The Tree as a Kinship Symbol (1:35)
1.07 - Milkweed - Obituaries (0:56)