Lesbian Corpse Wolves
Limited edition CD-R (30 copies) released by the Brazos Valley Meat Authority, now out of print but will be reissued as part of the Selenoclast Wolves CD. . Burnt inserts and a different beer bottle label with each copy. Settings of Rainer Maria Rilke poems from the Neue Gedichte in English translation including different versions of three tracks from A Tree Inside The Wolves. Guest vocals by Emily Salvatierra, instruments and vocals by Matt Rosin. Smolken does vocals on only one track, meaning this is probably be more accessible than any dead raven release of the past few years.

Funeral Monument Of A Young Girl
Eranna To Sappho
Faded
Sappho To Eranna
A Prophet
The Courtesan
Corpse-Washing
A Sibyl
The Lunatics

Reviews

Aversionline
September 2003
6/10
"Lesbian Corpse Wolves"? That's one hell of a title! Go figure. Anyway, musically this isn't so far off from a good portion of this curious project's other work, utilizing various stringed instruments to create dark, folk-ish compositions that rely heavily on picking accents and clashing notes that are both melodic and completely discordant all at once. The chief difference this time out is that the vast majority of the vocals are handled by a female singer (Emily Salvatierra), making a guest appearance here. Her voice is quite nice, and I find her singing style, while cleaner than the music, to be a good match for the style, and of course I find that it is a bit easier to digest than the dramatic singing usually present in Dead Raven Choir's work. A guest male vocalist (Matt Rosin) also handles some vocal duties, and his singing is also quite good. Longer pieces such as "The Courtesan" and "A Sibyl" are a bit less explosive as far as note choice and erratic string pressure, especially helping "The Courtesan" flow nicely along. Raw recordings that are very dry and spacious, not to mention as minimal as possible, add to the feeling of the music - which I like. A certain degree of "polishing" could make this material sound far more powerful, but something about the primal simplicity of the approach seems almost mandatory (granted the piano playing does sound quite excellent at times - see "Faded"). All of the artwork consist of close-up shots of paintings of wolves, and despite the fact that the home color printer job isn't fantastic, I really like the way the "booklet" consist of two two-sided card inserts that have each been burned in certain areas to create overlapping visual effects. Very cool. The back of the traycard has an Old Growler beer label attached to it, but I can't say why! As is generally the case with this project the lyrics are omitted, all you get is a tracklist and the lineup of who contributed to the music. Salvatierra is the finest vocal contributor that Dead Raven Choir has ever worked with, so I' love to hear her appear on future releases as well since I'm so finicky, but regardless, this limited edition release is the project's best yet in my opinion. I'd love to hear this direction explored to its full potential. Well done.

Aquarius Records
September 5, 2003
Yet another Dead Raven Choir cd-r! And again incredibly limited. We actually got the last 8 copies and after they're gone, they're gone for good. This time around, Smolken, who is Dead Raven Choir, tackles the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke, composing a suitably somber folkscape around his weighty words. Jandek-ian guitar clatter, Appalachian folk, tenuous piano, dramatic almost operatic vocals, and creepy dark ambience all coalesce into nightmarish outsider-folk grimness. Two guest vocalists, one male and one female, handle most of the singing, while Smolken takes care of the rest (the rest being string bass, tenor banjo, guitar, piano and some singing). Dark and pretty, sad and somber, and really nice. Each cover is unique, with the top layer carefully singed to reveal the layer beneath, and each cd comes with a different beer label under the tray, which the liner notes explain quite simply: All beer consumption by Smolken!