Olden Yolk is the self-titled debut of a project led by
Quilt co-founder
Shane Butler and fellow singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist
Caity Shaffer. While it explores the same '60s- and '70s-era psychedelic folk territory as
Butler's more established band, it does so with an even more remote, soft-focus lens. The duo were joined in the studio by their touring band, guitarist
Jesse DeFrancesco and drummer
Dan Drohan, a member of dream pop outfit
Uni Ika Ai. One of the fuzzier songs on the album, "Common Ground," opens with
Butler's voice, bass, and effects before it fleshes out its sound with rhythm guitar and drums, eventually expanding it further with echo-y, distorted electric guitar, crashing cymbals, and spacy backing vocals. Sparer, more ambling tracks like "Gamblers on a Dime" rely on acoustic instruments, though never entirely. That song employs acoustic guitar, violin, and light drums until it reaches its more textured, keyboard-accompanied choruses. Elsewhere, they pick up the tempo and the jangle on entries like "Cut to the Quick" and "Vital Sign." With
Shaffer singing lead, the latter strays into a lava lamp-induced instrumental interlude two-thirds of the way through before landing back on what sounds more like a three-part chorus than a typical verse, bridge, and chorus. Later, with a mix of acoustic and electric guitar, a minor key, and persistent vocal harmonies, the rustic "Hen's Teeth" sounds straight from the Summer of Love, though on average
Olden Yolk's songwriting evokes
Pink Floyd more often than
Jefferson Airplane or, say,
Neil Young. Besides the
Quilt connection, there's a
Woods link here, too, with
Jarvis Taveniere producing on an album that cooks up a dreamy meld of contemporary indie-New York atmosphere and a trippy past seemingly frozen in time.