Olden Yolk is the self-titled debut of a project led by Quilt co-founder Shane Butler and fellow singer/songwriter/multi-instrumentalist Caity Shaffer. While it explores the same '60s- and '70s-era psychedelic folk territory as Butler's more established band, it does so with an even more remote, soft-focus lens. The duo were joined in the studio by their touring band, guitarist Jesse DeFrancesco and drummer Dan Drohan, a member of dream pop outfit Uni Ika Ai. One of the fuzzier songs on the album, "Common Ground," opens with Butler's voice, bass, and effects before it fleshes out its sound with rhythm guitar and drums, eventually expanding it further with echo-y, distorted electric guitar, crashing cymbals, and spacy backing vocals. Sparer, more ambling tracks like "Gamblers on a Dime" rely on acoustic instruments, though never entirely. That song employs acoustic guitar, violin, and light drums until it reaches its more textured, keyboard-accompanied choruses. Elsewhere, they pick up the tempo and the jangle on entries like "Cut to the Quick" and "Vital Sign." With Shaffer singing lead, the latter strays into a lava lamp-induced instrumental interlude two-thirds of the way through before landing back on what sounds more like a three-part chorus than a typical verse, bridge, and chorus. Later, with a mix of acoustic and electric guitar, a minor key, and persistent vocal harmonies, the rustic "Hen's Teeth" sounds straight from the Summer of Love, though on average Olden Yolk's songwriting evokes Pink Floyd more often than Jefferson Airplane or, say, Neil Young. Besides the Quilt connection, there's a Woods link here, too, with Jarvis Taveniere producing on an album that cooks up a dreamy meld of contemporary indie-New York atmosphere and a trippy past seemingly frozen in time. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi

1		Verdant
2		Cut to the Quick
3		Gamblers on a Dime
4		Vital Sign
5		Aria
6		Common Ground
7		Hen's Teeth
8		Espirit de Corps
9		After Us
10		Takes One to Know One

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