With a soulful psychedelic swell, we are greeted by ‘The Woodsman‘, the latest offering from Opal Eskar, a collaborative project from the prolifically diverse DIY icon Karl Blau. Over the years, his music has peppered several of my Mixtapes (the latest Lost in Transmission No. 89 with a track from his 2022 album Love & Harm) but hasn’t even scratched the surface of his output.
I appreciate there are degrees of prolificacy, but in terms of Blau’s time in Washinton State, he was knocking out a lot of CD-Rs and cassettes to subscribers of Kelp! Monthly and then Kelp Lunacy Advanced Plagiarism Society. As it says in the notes for this release, Blau’s output helped nurture the DIY scene at the time, which brought K Records label (and influential artists such as Laura Veirs, The Microphones, and Earth — many of which Blau recorded and performed with) to prominence. If you’re unfamiliar with K Records then seek out Heather Rose Dominic’s 2000 documentary The Shield Around the K: The Story of K Records.
Blau has since relocated to Philly, also a music-rich city, where he met Heyward Howkins (vocals, guitar) and Chet Delcampo (vocals, guitar, bass, keys), who appeared on the first Opal Eskar single (Sunlight is Breakin’ Out). For their new single, The Woodsman, they are joined by Charlie Hall and Robbie Bennett of The War on Drugs.
For this new video, Blau keeps it DIY…sounding lo-fi and musically wonky but warm and inviting.
“As tough and debilitating as it may be at times, especially when there are hard things to share, ‘The Woodsman’ is about how having an honest relationship makes for a deeper relationship,” says Karl Blau of the latest single from his new collaborative project Opal Eskar. “We made the video in my buddy’s backyard. We didn’t intend for the mask to become a major theme, but the piece spontaneously worked with that mask, and the trampoline footage highlights the northeast Philly vibe pretty hard.”
Opal Eskar
Self-Titled EP
(Spiral Valley Records)
May 19, 2023