Each Measure Feature: 49 Burning Condors

FEATURE

There is nothing slapdash about 49 Burning Condors’ approach to music-making. The hallmarks of their woodsy, gothic sound—from disquieting strings to rolling drums to unsettling sonic scratches and flourishes—are thoughtfully laced throughout their catalog of music, like breadcrumbs in a forest leading straight to a witch’s hovel. Their well-honed sound is not arbitrary; it has a desired effect, and a quality possessed by the most talented artists is a keen sense of when to break form in order to maximize that effect.

That’s what 49 Burning Condors accomplish with their new single, Slit Tongue Sparrow. They incorporate a novel element—specifically, a beautiful flamenco guitar riff composed by Condors’ multi-instrumentalist Christopher Michaels as the song’s foundational component—and add layers of lush female vocals to drive home a feeling that, as stated in a press release for the song, is “equal parts tragic and vindicating.”

This interwoven feeling of tragedy and vindication is what Slit Tongue Sparrow’s innovative narrative demands. Slit Tongue Sparrow was inspired by a Japanese folktale of the same name, but the story was flipped by Condors’ vocalist and songwriter Kimber Dulin to be a celebration of female solidarity.

In Dulin’s version, the sparrow of the song’s title—a transfigured witch—is captured and mistreated by a male antagonist, stripping the songbird of its ability to sing. It’s a heartbreaking moment in the song as we consider a world robbed of the bird’s beautiful gift. However, in a reversal of the Japanese folktale’s employment of the “jealous female” trope, the slit-tongue sparrow of the song is rescued—and avenged—by a quarrel of sparrows.

This moment in the song is emphasized by powerful backing vocals from a number of Philadelphia’s talented female vocalists, who descend on the song’s climax, harmonizing like a cloud of sparrows coming to the aid of one of their own. In this section of the song, the transfigured witch’s greatest moment of loss becomes her greatest moment of vindication—and achievement.

What 49 Burning Condors, and Kimber Dulin in particular, pull off in Slit Tongue Sparrow is a remarkable achievement. The assuredness of her creative vision and direction is on display in a mini-documentary produced by the band about the song’s making. In this video, we see Dulin’s passion for female collaboration as she expertly coaches other Philadelphia talents, guiding them and encouraging them to use their voices to elevate a song that was already beautifully composed.

She and the other Condors bandmates possess the creative acumen to assess disparate elements—their well-honed sound, new sonic components like the flamenco guitar, and the voices of other female artists—and find innovative fittings for these elements that tell unique and profound stories.

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