biography
Boduf Songs is the name taken by Mat Sweet, who lives in Southampton England. Sweet has released a number of limited edition CD-Rs by himself and friends working in various combinations and playing music that ranged from pure electronics to heavy rock on his Bluebaby Recordings label. Boduf Songs was Sweet's first attempt at recording himself playing his own songs. The album was recorded with an acoustic guitar, some cymbals, violin bow, toy piano, manipulated field recordings and a computer.

A demo CD-R got to kranky (among other places) and we were floored. Arrangements were made to release the Boduf Songs demo as it was, without re-recording. The immediacy of the songs overcame the technical limitations of the recording process. Sweet had created songs with memorable melodies, artful arrangements and carefully placed effects. The Boduf Songs album reminds the listener of a sunny English afternoon, with an ominous tinge of approaching clouds. Sweet's collaged album art, taken from Victorian books, lends a surreal air to the album. Mat Sweet will be recording a second Boduf Songs album under more ideal conditions for release on kranky in 2006.

"Stark and dark psychedelia exquisitely woven by one M. Sweet. A thick, oaken acoustic guitar dominates, but Sweet doesn't shy away from applying cymbal splashes and string interludes (with some lovely harmonics feeding back on "Claimant Reclaimed," a too-little-used technique of startling beauty) at odd moments in the songs. In so doing he fills out their texture, sometimes disorientingly, as with the strange chimes that devour the end of "Lost in Forests," but he doesn't make them overdone or obscure. He never creates too much of a diversion from the heavy, melancholy cores of the songs. These morose incantations, these burnished prayers were wrought with great care and intelligence ­ emotional, musical, and dare I say spiritual. What spirits are invoked I don't know, but I imagine they are as riveted as I am to these haunted musings."
9/10 - Sal Addays, Foxy Digitalis, July 1, 2005

...this album is too damn short. It's easy to find this album playing on repeat for the majority of the day. Not that this is a bad thing. This album is unbelievably cool in that pitch black night sort of manner. However, Boduf Songs can easily make one forget about any other albums that might be lying around your apartment.
- Eric McPhail, Delusions of Adequacy, July 11, 2005

kranky titles available
Lion Devours the Sun
Boduf Songs

external links
bluebabyrecordings.com