Magic Tuber Stringband 
An album built on tradition and destruction of folk forms, RSTB favorites Magic Tuber Stringband return to Thrill Jockey for a new record with deep roots in their South Carolina community. The album ties into fiddler Courtney Werner’s work as an ecologist on the Savannah River Site. The site has history with ecological damage and the systemic displacement of communities, having been the site of Ellenton, a town swept aside in order for the federal government to build the Savannah River Plant in 1952 for the purpose of nuclear arms production during the Cold War. The production of weapons-grade plutonium forever changed the ecological structure of the river and left the area covered in toxic coal ash. The record is imbued with a sense of traditions soured, centering friction butting against the bucolic folk and bluegrass that would have long endured along the river.
The band has ebbed into the fissure of folk and noise before, but here it ties together into a longer arc, not simply the tension of tradition and time, but one mired in deep loss and the long road to recovery. The band has played as a trio for a few years now, but this also marks the first time that bassist/banjoist Mike DeVito has been a part of the writing and studio process. The band’s dynamic on the road has bloomed in the studio and on Heavy Water they’re able to funnel years of anguish and small moments of joy onto tape. The record opens into passages when the songs chafe and chap, knife twists of destruction and deterioration, but there’s room for beauty in the album as well. The more the record moves towards its conclusions, mirroring the land’s recent rebirth, the more those moments reach the ears. Where there’s uncertainty under the surface of “Blooms in the Rapids” there’s a peace that soothes the palpitations oil “Where The Place Becomes Forgetting.” Another stunning outing from the band, who along with Black Twig Pickers have worked to re-contextualize Appalachian folk for an age that’s quick to forget.
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