At the turn of the century, folk music came roaring back out of the water Godzilla style—mutated and fearsome. Y2K-ready bands like Vetiver and Animal Collective added modern avant tech to '60s protest. The intimacy was aggressive: Lo-fi vocals distorting as they became more expressive. It was also deeply political, a radical return to the idealistic and un-Clintonian left which pushed a form of sexual liberation and drug culture that would give Justices Roberts and Alito heart attacks (Scalia would feign outrage but we could all see he was beating it under his robe).

While Tiny Vipers meditates on 2000s folk, she also strips it of most of its electronic elements; if there is a loop pedal here it's well hidden. This reduction makes her aching songs more personal. Just a girl (singer songwriter Jesy Fortino) and a guitar and you. But her spare arrangements aren't barren. Her powerful alto winds up and down all of these songs making the limited space burst with presence.

And the minimal guitaring can be deceptive. On “Forest on Fire,” a simple guitar  repeats hypnotically until it drenches the song in dissonant noise. It's terrifying and violent, but there's beauty in it. These are reflective songs to reflect to, an emotional achievement that keeps you simultaneously in the present and the past.

Tiny Vipers plays at the Vera Project on Friday April 17^th

Myspace:  www.myspace.com/tinyvipersss