Douglas Kirby, aka From A Fountain, released his very psychedelic debut, Shale and Sandstone, in 2010 singing in earnest of love, brothers, mountains, and rainbows surrounded by choirs of talented friends (Toby Lehman of Dr. Dog and Mary Lattimore of Kurt Vile, amongst others) and experimental vibes. Now he’s back with new material recorded by way of a rented warehouse in his hometown of Sioux Falls, South Dakota, mixed by Nick Krill of Spinto Band and mastered by JJ Golden (New Pornographers, Calexico). Once again backed by friends and still refusing to homogenize his sound to a single genre, Kirby is releasing his sophomore record, Milky Mile in August and is gracing us today with the first single.
“Halo” is a straight up folk earworm via cyclical oh-whoa-whoa’s, stacked harmonies, and passionately-plucked strings. Beginning minimally, the song slowly snowballs adding layer upon layer of percussion and voices as it rolls until it grows to a full-bodied, savory track. Kirby is at the mercy of the words here, letting them slip and slide from his tongue at will, emitting images both colorful and clever, and if “Halo” is any indication of the quality to come from Milky Mile, all signs point to a record of significance and beauty that we can hardly wait to hear. Slip into From A Fountain’s sublime landscape of sound with this track and keep your ears to the ground for details on Milky Mile’s August 20 release, followed by Milky Mile Two in October.