The North Sea

Tulsa, OK native Brad Rose is king of all things foxy and/or digital, running two labels (Digitalis and Foxglove) and a webzine (Foxy Digitalis), and whenever a slow warm night comes along, recording a foxy digital disc. That is if "foxy” means "steeped in off-kilter folk, Eastern drone and haunted by flocks of birds carrying spoons in their beaks.” Last year’s collaboration with UK trio Ramses III, another Type release, explored hypnotism via longer form explorations, whereas the pieces on Exquisite Idols are more acoustic, folkier and fit in your breast pocket. Rose still ekes grandeur out of small noises of birdsongs, wind chimes and trembling drones linked arm-in-arm, as on "Guiwenneth Of The Green Grass,” with an acoustic guitar that sounds in love with the world. "Take it from me Brother Moses” is the most traditional of the pieces, with a plunk-y banjo giving us that old time-y treatment. Elsewhere, on "Cover me with Knives” and "We Conquered the Golden Age,” the latter being the only extended meditation on the disc, Rose wanders into more crooked paths and achieves a kind of transcendence many free/freak folk collectives strive to discover.