It's not often we find ourselves covering music that covers matters of faith—perceptions of certain religious genres' relative inaccessibility run rampant in this business. Well, neither is it often that we hear something so attune to that discrepancy, and so quick to bridge to gap with ease. Hiss Golden Messenger, a North Carolina folk duo, is led by MC Taylor, who recorded the track under consideration, “Drum,” alone in his kitchen on a portable cassette recorder while his wife and baby were asleep. The song comes from Bad Debt, an album originally released in 2010; however, the first masters were lost in a warehouse fire during the London riots and it spent several years in obscurity. Paradise of Bachelors recently reissued the 12 songs on vinyl. Of the album as a whole, Taylor says, “the record is about my God: that is, whether I have one, and whether there is a place for me in this world. I don’t go to church, and I am not saved . . . Bad Debt was my revelation.” The song has all the trappings of a psalm, but with the rough intimacy of classic folk music. It will likely make mush of your heart before turning you into one of the diehard fans for whom this release is also a revelation.
The reissue is available now in limited numbers on Paradise of Bachelors. Listen to “Drum,” the first in a 3-track soundcloud stream below.
