Though they're from Rhode Island, the duo comprising
Iditarod
(
Carin Wagner
and
Jeffrey Alexander
) sound quite a bit like a British
psychedelic
-tinged
folk
or
folk-rock
act. Those enamored of the sound of vintage artists in that tributary, like
Donovan
,
the Incredible String Band
, and
Pentangle
-- and of more recent artists that obviously owe something to that style, like
Robyn Hitchcock
and (far more obscurely)
Damien Youth
-- might well be inclined to enjoy this record, though it's not explicitly imitative of any of those artists. While the music's often acoustic guitar-based, the pair play a pretty impressive range of instruments on this CD, from moog and wine glasses to tamboura, singing bowl, and chimes, with some other musicians adding touches on cello, recorder, bouzouki, and more. As the title indicates, there's a mythological-stroll-in-the-forest tinge to their approach, with some electronic effects and backwards-distorted guitar lines adding a bit of
psychedelia
, without ever submerging the essentially folky ambience. They may be mood-setters more than they are songwriters, but the mood's a good one: melancholy, subdued, and slightly eerie
, with quite a bit of varied texture, and an avoidance of the drone and monotony that afflict many other bands working similar territory. The vocals, as befits such material, are suitably fragile and wistful, if not exceptional, broken up by haunting instrumentals that have a touch of exotic (sometimes Indian) mystery. ~ Richie Unterberger