The recordings' varying degrees of audibility add to the project's immediacy. At one end of the spectrum there's "Heatseeker's Safety Den", which sounds like it was recorded on an answering machine. Hunter's voice and guitar are constantly distorted, and the string arrangements sound as if they're coming from a few rooms away. Although Hunter's plummy vocals have all the wonderful reedy qualities of a pre-bebop jazz singer, the recording's amateurish quality lends authenticity to the song's spontaneous "confessional" feel.
At the far opposite end of the line, you'll find ultra-clean songs like "The Earth Has No Skin" and "Laughing and Crying" -- sparse, freaky vocal folk numbers in the same vein as some of Castanets' departures into rural Americana. While arrangements this thin would probably benefit from the older material's murky recording style, the vocals' crystalline nakedness is startlingly effective.
Ultimately, production tricks are nothing but texture and enhancement; none of them would be worth a damn if not for Hunter's songs and astonishing voice. With only a couple of exceptions ("Untitled (Hanging Around)"'s foray into Denali-esque gothic sultriness comes to mind), her experiments work stunningly well. Her songs, whether sparse or fuzzy, folky or choral, will work their way into your psyche and reside there at length. Her voice will inhabit your soul and echo in your breath. With any luck, between Gnomonsong's heightened profile and the quality of Hunter's material, Blank Unstaring Heirs of Doom will find a broader audience and more artists of Hunter's caliber and fearlessness will follow her path.
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