Greta Ruth: “Milk Tooth” / “Hull”

Last year local experimental artist Greta Ruth released her opus work, The Fawn, an excellent collection of unique folk tunes. Two of the songs originally planned as vocal interludes for that record, “Milk Tooth” and “Hull” ended up cut from the final work. Those songs are now seeing the light of day as standalone tunes – Ruth recently released both via her bandcamp page.    

It’s easy to hear how thematically, “Milk Tooth” and “Hull,” would have been outliers in The Fawn. They are both multi-tracked vocal pieces whereas the record was mainly finger-picked guitar. They are a great listen though – Ruth arranges her vocal layers to interact in sometimes-dissonant and sometimes-harmonic dynamics. The effect is raw and direct in a way that feels like pure emotion manifested into song.

The choice to leave the tracks relatively unpolished was intentional – Ruth originally planned to re-record them for the record. However, since the originals were largely improvised, she felt that the “spontaneity might be lost, and that in this case, vulnerability and emotion outweighed any chance of perfection.” It feels like the right choice as the rawness of the songs is their most engaging feature. 

You can stream/purchase both tracks here or below.