Scott Tuma - Hard Again / The River 1 2 3 4 2LP

I’ve been rattling on and on about Souled American the last couple of months. The “Americana without the weenie aspects” band, who weaved Palace Brothers with Henry Flynt’s hillbilly minimalism. Well Scott Tuma was the guitarist in that group and this set, collecting two albums he made after leaving the band, says a lot about his contribution to Souled American, and maybe why he jumped off that (beautiful) sinking ship.

You can certainly feel the atmosphere he provided on Souled American’s late 90s languid ditch era, their two post-Rough Trade albums that somewhat deconstructed their previous mode of operation, but on the other hand there’s none of the tortured tension… or fretless bass.

‘Hard Again’ (2001) and ‘The River 1 2 3 4’ (2003) are very pretty listens that sit between the worlds of atmospheric works and guitar ditties. Think Neil Young’s ‘Dead Man’ or Bruce Langhorne’s ‘Hired Hand’ soundtracks, Loren Connors’ most tuneful work, Love Chants and Blue Divers.

Both discs feel like an essential and enjoyable addition to my expanded Souled American universe and in doing my Tuma research I’m joining the dots with the old Foxy Digitalis / Digitalis Recordings days. A place I’d navigate free folk, noise, drone, in my early 20s….an intro to New Zealand Noise and pre-Negative Guest List Brisbane weirdos amongst other good things.

That’s enough salesmanship for today… ok one more selling point: Jim White cameo. - Nic