Historically speaking my experiences with independent music on Long Island has been that of encountering bands of varying genres but generally music that is loud and essentially "rock" based. While not as fast paced as city life Long Island does tend to have an energy about itself and I think that is certainly reflected in the music here. Escaping from suburban drudgery and letting it all out through a shitty PA at a bar on Thursday night. Long Island finds a way to come together and celebrate life through anthem filled music. However, there is an isolation about suburban life that tends to be over looked- it is in a way tailor made for those of us who spend Friday nights home drinking 7-11 coffee and listening to ramshackle folk records. And generally speaking I think the music that reflects this isolation is if not seldom explored but at the very least seldom shared in the public light here on the island. This island is so diverse in its make up and being surrounded by water, it becomes a part of the DNA of being a Long Islander. This constant juxtaposition of suburban life, that is in the shadow of the big city that is New York City against having a history wrapped around it that is rich in fishing, beaches and such is constantly looming whether we address it or not. How does any of this relate to Squanto you may be wondering- well as someone who has grown up and lived in various parts of the Island I feel this music, whether Ben Lovell (the mind behind Squanto) intends it or not, tells another tale of Long Island that doesn't get told too often. We have heard our outspoken, shared experience of suburban anthems of angst and youthful exuberance but what Squanto does is through the vehicle of loose ambient/folk music is paint a picture of the isolation, the inward personal journey that is also reflective of the experience that many of us have with Long Island. "A Gift and A Favor" is a collection of five songs that in their airy like composition seem to roll off the tide of the Long Island Sound, with gentle finger picked acoustic guitar melodies that sublimely segment with corresponding guitar harmonies, swelling ambient sounds, and hushed, layered vocals against a back drop of natural ambiance, and found suburban and nature sounds. Squanto provides a soundtrack for the suburban experience that is positioned far from the noisy traffic jams of the LIE and the gleam of strip malls in our every line of sight. In some ways I feel as if the music of Squanto is auditory equivalent what Transcendentalist literature offered, as through these series of loose sounds that Lovell weaves together the listener is being offered a contemporary notion of stepping away from all the clatter of the world around us and honing in that personal, momentary experience and the subtle sounds that occur. "A Gift and A Favor" is experience that you will take in and revisit many times, and upon which new layers will resonate with you as a listener. All of Squanto's music is breathtakingly serene, and I highly recommend that you seek it out through Lovell's own Lilly Tapes and Discs label whom is gracious enough to co-release "A Gift and A Favor" with Rok Lok Records. This home dubbed cassette with full color j-cards and custom labels is limited to a edition of 65.

This is Rok Lok Records #74