His Noiseless Ball, His Boxwood Rattle

by Mercy Choir

supported by

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

$5 USD or more
Full Digital Discography

36

releases

Get all 36 Mercy Choir releases available on Bandcamp and save 50%.

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality downloads of Heaven, The True Blue Eventual Kid, Dance of the Bones Anew, Kitchen Knife Collection, On The Beach The Snow Was Matted Where Two Unknown Lovers Lay, Falling in Line, Nightingale Blue b/w Little Lilac, Devoured By Love, and 28 more. , and , .

Purchasable with gift card

$65 USD or more (50% OFF)
Limited Edition Cassette
Cassette + Digital Album
The hazy sound of this highly limited, home dubbed cassette captures the spirit of which the album was written and recorded.

Includes unlimited streaming of His Noiseless Ball, His Boxwood Rattle via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out
Limited Edition Compact Disc
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Highly limited CD-r in a recycled cardstock sleeve. The disc itself is hand labeled.

Includes unlimited streaming of His Noiseless Ball, His Boxwood Rattle via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Sold Out

1.	The First Of The Final Putdowns 01:12	buy track
2.	Acoustic Untitled Birdwatcher 04:52	buy track
3.	Where Did Johnny Go? 01:07	buy track
4.	Clear and Trash 01:15	buy track
5.	Cage Act #4 01:49	buy track
6.	Old Devil Cockatoo 05:39	buy track
7.	Waabaayo 02:57	buy track
8.	Bow Tied Low 00:52	buy track
9.	Sing and Cry 02:28	buy track
10.	Calamity John 00:53	buy track
11.	The Republic Of Coincidence 00:23	buy track
12.	Cub On The Run 03:33	buy track
13.	Hasslewood Rock 02:17	buy track
14.	Apostrophe Piano 02:09	buy track

about

"It's been a dizzying year for Paul Belbusti, aka Mercy Choir. Three full-length albums, a collaborative EP with avant-twang songwriter Lys Guillorn, a split EP with electro-grind producer Xrin Arms, a Connecticut Music Award nomination for "Best Other," and the birth of his first child (a son). If there's compromise in collaboration, purpose in procreation, and some noble martyrdom in spreading oneself thin, Belbusti may have saved His Noiseless Ball, His Boxwood Rattle—the third and final Mercy Choir album of the year—to act as a simple pressure valve, hissing forth unpredictably with any leftover raw expression.

His Noiseless Ball celebrates a chaotic 2013 with 14 tracks in under 33 minutes: Hyper-melodic pop bursts that would make Bob Pollard proud (the blistering mess of "Clear and Trash," the strident "Calamity John"), blown-out sonic chaos ("Cub on the Run" in its bed of distortion), anything-goes sketches ("The Republic of Coincidence" falling apart on itself, the music-box "Auld Lang Syne" introducing "Hasslewood Rock"), and—since this is in fact Mercy Choir—some subdued and lyrically rich numbers like "Acoustic Untitled Birdwatcher," with its poetic rumination and lilting synth lead, or the hook in the heart that is "Cage Act #4." (It's our luck that Belbusti can never quite suppress those folkier inclinations no matter how much clutter he creates around his work.)

The album closes with "Apostrophe Piano," a bookend to the sprawling Apostrophe Music from earlier this year, and as it happens, Mercy Choir's final statement to wrap up 2013. With its soft, meandering ivory plinks, it seems to belie the year's chaos with a simple being, a comfort navigating life's peaks and valleys and still doing the good work—prolificacy springs eternal if you can just find the valve."

credits

released November 26, 2013

written, performed, and recorded by paul belbusti.
mastered by dan abatemarco: speakonion.com

license

about

Mercy Choir

Mercy Choir is the musical project of Paul Belbusti, a person from the New Haven, Connecticut area of the United States of America.

contact / help

Contact Mercy Choir

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like Mercy Choir, you may also like:

Passing Place
by Good Good Blood

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 14, 2016
go to album
Sun Of A Gun
by Good Good Blood

Moody and moving, Good Good Blood’s “Son of a Gun” has a richness and breadth that belies its home-recording roots. Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 30, 2017
go to album
That Bridge Washed Away In The Storm (EP)
by Lowpines

Avi Buffalo had a hand in producing this cassette of Lowpines' serene, self-described "Lo-fi-Anglo-Americana pop songs." Bandcamp New & Notable Feb 28, 2016
go to album
Stillness
by Lake Michigan

The latest release on Z Tapes is full of hushed guitar work and deep, groaning vocals. Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 14, 2018
go to album
Gleaming
by Lake Michigan

Intimate lo-fi transmissions from a land glimmering with fairy lights. Bandcamp New & Notable May 9, 2016
go to album
Fairytale Delirium
by Yani Martinelli

Trippy psych-pop from the Madrid-based artist Yani Martinelli, available on a cassette that comes with “a small surprise.” Bandcamp New & Notable Jul 22, 2019
go to album
Truthlikeness
by Ryan Von Gonten

Ryan Von Gonten’s knack for heartwrenching vocal melody is front and center on the quiet, surging “Truthlikeness.” Bandcamp New & Notable Oct 14, 2018
go to album