here is the NFO file from Indietorrents
01 Grass Above My Head
02 Double Horse
03 Houses of Parliament
CD rip / mp3 / 320
Album info
Dublin-based Nugent has performed and recorded mainly as a Takoma School solo guitarist for the past few years (though his last album Doubles featured some more orchestrated moments), but his latest effort sees him embracing the pleasures of a full band; The Cosmos’ violin, drums, keyboards and bass provide a launching pad for Nugent’s joyful six-string excursions. Throwing around the adjective “perfect” is a dangerous thing, but I’ll be goddamned if I can find a single thing wrong with Born With The Caul.
The album kicks off with “Grass Over My Head,” a track that suggests John Fahey and The Band playing a New Orleans funeral, with mournful horns and fingerpicked acoustic guitar suddenly shifting into a beautiful double time rag. As good as that is, it’s only a preview of the glories to come. First up is “Double Horse,” a dreamy drone that conjures up the magnificent, oceanic swells of Fairport Convention’s classic “A Sailor’s Life.” A powerful, transfixing ride. Then, for the length of side 2, we’re treated to the massive “The Houses of Parliament,” a 23-minute song suite that travels from majestic folk rock to candy-colored psychedelia to Thin Lizzy-style boogie to pulse pounding raga rave-up as though it’s no big thing. It’s a lengthy journey, but not one second is wasted.
Check out what these other outlets are saying:
New York Times: The Irish guitarist Cian Nugent sounds as if he has entirely absorbed the prescient, droney traditionalism of American guitarists in the 1960s like John Fahey and Sandy Bull, but he has taking it forward into his own hybridized areas: chamber music, jazz, psychedelia, bluegrass, and what people who used to visit record stores might call postrock… Highly accomplished”
Irish Times: Nugents command of mood and tension and his mastery of his instrument, are a marvel.
PopMatters: Nugent and the Cosmos create and then explore negative space… stretching into the kind of rippling rock exploration that would make Crazy Horse weep… This is a masterful and brilliant set top to bottom.