DETAILS
TRACKS
Side A
- Of Divided Night
- Say Goodbye (Play Me a Melody)
- The Absence of Photographs
- My Ambiguity Frustrates
- Border Oklahoma
- Take Off Your Diamonds
- Her Averah
Side B
- The Dowery
- I'm Waiting In Writing
- Settle In
- Spanish Thoughts (excerpt)
- Her Fond Creation True
- Centralia (Washington-California)
RELEASE DATE
11/23/2016
Vinyl edition is a Series 33 release, limited to 33 copies.
Norfolk & Western seized upon and surpassed on the wonderful Centralia every good quality that creaked from their initial effort. Former one-man band Adam Selzer enlisted a consistent cadre of friends, and this "cast" was able to create a wholly realized album in a way that Selzer alone couldn't on the intriguing but sketchy A Collection Of. Norfolk & Western is not quite yet a proper band here. Selzer still wrote all the tunes and played a roomful of instruments, including all of them on two songs ("My Ambiguity Frustrates" and "Her Fond Creation True," though the former is really just a fragment). Matthew Ward (an excellent solo artist himself under the nom de troubadour M. Ward), however, is almost an equal partner in performance, and several other players make exquisite contributions, especially Amanda Lawrence, whose viola provides a poignant orchestral element to several songs (not least on the two most gorgeous, "The Absence of Photographs" and the breathtaking duet "Take Off Your Diamonds").
The album continued to employ tape machine snippets, recorded bits of cozy apartment assemblages, and objets d'lo-fi, in addition to extensive solo acoustic strumming and melancholy, vocals just a decibel or two above a whisper. But these are all utilized in support of songs rather than as set-pieces themselves. And the production, while still frayed around the edges, is considerably more polished, giving the recording an extraordinarily warm and organic sound, full of added instrumental color and texture -- subtle touches of organ, piano, and keyboard; bursts of harmonica; and spectral lap steel guitar rippling against drowsy soundscapes and tape loops like lazy Pacific waves. But above all, this is an extremely strong set of songs -- folk songs transformed into shimmering epics juxtaposed against haunting, lustrous instrumentals -- a frequently stunning progression in sustained temperament, tone, and consequence.
EXPLORE

Adam Selzer
Slow Decay

Hallelujah The Hills
Against Electricity

José Medeles
Art of Slowness: The Halfling Session

Old Unconscious
Sunfort

Motrik
"33"

Christian Kiefer
What You Have Come For Is Death

Boxhead Ensemble
The Unseen Hand: Music For Documentary Film

Hook & Anchor
Hook & Anchor

The Valiant Arms
Swallow The Sea: The Songs of The Crabs

Carcrashlander
A Plan To Tell The Future

Alialujah Choir
The Alialujah Choir

Slow Moses
Charity Binge

Scirocco
Walk To The Moon

Perhapst
Perhapst

The Born Losers
The Born Losers

The Maroons
You're Gonna Ruin Everything

Dave Depper
Utrecht Suite

Matthew Hattie Hein
In Search of Lost Hein

No. 2
What Does Good Luck Bring?

Nick Jaina
A Bird In The Opera House

Boxhead Ensemble
Electric Guitar

Kpants
Smile And Nod Accordingly

Eyelids
Slow It Goes

Arch Cape
Arch Cape

Hallelujah The Hills
No One Knows What Happens Next

Annalisa Tornfelt & Gideon Freudmann
Unraveling

Martha Scanlan
The Shape of Things Gone Missing, The Shape of Things To Come

The Hackles
The Twilight's Calling It Quits

Eyelids
Maybe More

Martha Scanlan
The River and The Light

Team Dresch
Team Dresch Bundles

Team Dresch
Team Dresch "Husband" T

Old Unconscious
Lyle

Eyelids
Jay Gonzalez Sings Eyelids Sings Jay Gonzalez Sings Eyelids

Defective AI
A Book Of Coherent Warnings

Marisa Anderson & Tara Jane O'Neil
You'd Be So Nice To Come Home To

No. 2
You Might Be Right

Team Dresch
Choices, Chances, Changes: Singles & Comptracks 1994-2000

Dave Depper
Europa

Longstocking
Once Upon A Time Called Now

Infinite X's
Infinite X's

Chainsaw Records
Chainsaw Records Bundle

Chainsaw Records
Chainsaw Records T Shirt

Candy-Ass Records
Candy-Ass Records Hoodie

Red Red Meat
Red Red Meat T

José Medeles
Railroad Cadences & Melancholic Anthems

No. 2
First Love

Martha Scanlan & Jon Neufeld
Last Stars First Light
