According to the blurb Early Day Miners spin American rural music into richly cinematic, experimental textures that contain a prominent streak of melancholy. For some reason, I stumbled across a couple of their tracks on the blogosphere and quite liked them. The album, Offshore, is basically one long themed track, mostly instrumental, almost prog like guitars, occasionally fragranced with haunting vocals.
Guns and Drums by Low has pictures of Guns and Drums on the sleeve. Very clever I thought. This album moves back to classic melancholic(?) Low rather than the slight increase in cheer and tempo of The Great Destroyer. Not one for parties – but some good contents.

Soon to be reading The Children of Hurin by Family Tolkien! I have loved The Hobbit and the subsequent trilogy from quite an early age, with the films just bringing a richness to the story. Though I struggled with The Silmarillion (is that a Fish et al tribute band?) I have had a great desire to feed my Middle-Earth knowledge. I would love to see a prequel to them Rings films, even to the Hobbit, featuring the first great battles – flashbacks of which we see in the trilogy.