Old Table/The Cradle, Journey to the Inside-Out Eye

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Journey to the Inside-Out Eye is a new 15-song split between New York’s Old Table , the solo project of William Moloney, and The Cradle, the guy behind Big Neck Police.

Moloney, often called an undiscovered genius, breathes the unmistakable rawness of Daniel Johnston and Syd Barrett. But unlike those tortured souls, Old Table is one big family affair, where the Yankou brothers of No One and the Somebodies and Turbosleaze (whom Moloney also is also a member of), members of The Gradients, and Cave Cricket all come together to make some damn soulful music. The project is diverse, unashamedly lo-fi at times and more produced at others. Lyrically, the songs are incredibly poetic but also inspiringly playful and light-hearted.

Moloney’s side of this split is exquisite in its simplicity. Its the kind of energy that lights a little flame inside of you; in turn you decide to let it burn out or light an even bigger fire. Each song is a little snippet of life, an idea or a thought, but whether it’s brought to full fruition or not doesn’t matter because it’s the kind of music that’ll invite you to think. We need more of that in music: invitations over exclusivity. There is a lit up expression that people get on their faces when they talk to me about Old Table.

The second half of the split is by one Paco Cathcart, who channels the noisy vibes of Big Neck Police into his acoustic guitar. It’s a distinctly natural sound, exploring further reaches of folk music and instrumentation (he’s got an album consisting of Gamelan gong-kebyar instrumentation) and strange harmonies and recording techniques. The mood at times recalls Akron/Family’s folk experimentation with sampling and structures, but comparisons might not do when it comes to Paco’s intuition. On this split The Cradle is joined by Sammy Weisberg of The Gradients on up-right bass and Hugo Stanely of Big Neck Police and Palm on percussion, both very talented musicians who bring Paco’s music to life.

Listen to songs by each artist below.