Rosali "Bite Down"
Dan Bejar of Destroyer says:
“It’s hard to talk about Rosali’s music. Songs that reach outward like this, but then constantly disarm with their intimacy. What do you call such inner searching that is hellbent on rollicking? Songs that long for a sense of peace and songs that want romance, all on equal footing in the same plot of earth? Performed wild, but always centered around the incredible lyrical calm that is Rosali’s voice.
Bite Down makes me think about singers and bands that throw themselves hard into the storm, the way the Rosali quartet does. … The calm of her voice over top of the band’s raging—it is the emblem of songs that live to put themselves in harm’s way. But it’s not harm. It’s just that you have to play hard to get at these goods. The calm of Rosali’s voice, the straight talk of her inner search vs. the wildness of the band, the sonic storm she rides in on. That’s their sound.”
Wye Oak "Shriek: Variations"
Outer World "Who Does the Music Love?"
Who wouldn’t want a break from planet earth after the past few years we’ve all had? Kenneth Close and Tracy Wilson have built themselves a new universe in the form of a home recording studio to transport themselves a galaxy away from the grief, fear, and worry the pandemic brought. The duo dubbed themselves Outer World and they blasted off into an entirely new to them corner of the musical universe to create their debut album Who does the music love?
Covid moved into Wilson’s lungs in February of 2020 and overstayed its welcome. It stole what she describes as “her big voice”. For those familiar with her previous bands Dahlia Seed or Positive No, her trademark, no need for a microphone belt, was gone for good. The couple grieved for the literal loss of a primary instrument used in their art, but were determined to find a way back to making music again.Together, they began exploring the world of songwriting using a computer, samples, synths, and plug-ins. The goal was to create a new musical landscape where Tracy could find a new voice that wasn’t as focused on power, but still potent nonetheless. The next two years were spent wrestling with long Covid and finding ways to work around each new frustrating lingering side effect.
Close and Wilson had spent the previous decade creating technicolor post-punk pop as the band Positive No. Their final cinematic album Kyanite dabbled with electronic sounds and hints that had they remained active through the past three years, their indie rock genre banner would have been torn down to make way for something more free adventurous. Their current home studio sits in the center of what they lovingly call the record womb, a computer surrounded by some 7,000 records and all their instruments/ recording gear. Tucked into the layers of Who does the music love? is a century of recorded music from all over the world. We find the dynamic swing of a Swedish soul jazz singer on top of Bond worthy spy themes. We hear the sensuality of France in the ‘60’s when in swaggers a wink to ‘90s house music. There is a tug-o-war between a ‘70s angular post punk and experimental Brazilian psych. Cosmic Jazz, noisecore, freakbeat breaks, space age bachelor pad Moog mayhem, and the treatment of the iconic retro-future group Broadcast as a genre and chosen family. This diverse blend is just some of Outer World’s psychedelic garage pop points of inspiration. It is music to make any crate digger’s heart skip a beat.
A six songs demo in the summer of 2022 was reshaped at the Sweeping Promises home studio in Lawrence Kansas with the additional help of Keith Renna on drums; fellow member of Positive No with a proven chemistry to Close and Wilson. A 7th song was written that fall, and then the entire body of work was handed over to Maryam Qudus (Spacemoth) for her artful mixing. Outer World’s long EP had metamorphosed from song sketches used for vocal rehab and a pandemic escape hatch into a reverb drenched, hallucinogenic fever dream. Thematically the pandemic is never given the spotlight; it was merely the dirt from which these flowers bloomed: Lotteries (Loteria), an artist’s complicated relationship with making art (Outer World), notes to self written on hotel stationary (Have), French proverbs (Forms of Knowing), Chiaroscuro contrasts (Flower Gunpowder), Keith Haring’s personal musings (The Message is the Message), and the power dynamics in relationships (The Drum, The Beat – featuring Lira Mondal of Sweeping Promises on backing vocals). Chicago illustrator Sara Gossett carries us out of this world and into a colorful cosmic universe where joy radiates out in all directions.
It would be tempting to call Outer World a pandemic project or assume their debut record carries the emotional weight of terrible times, but you would be wrong on both counts. Outer World is a band nearly 15 years in the making and Who does the music love? is a blissful rainbow wrapped up in a giant silver lining bow. Problem solving around a tragedy has never sounded so curiously enthralling.
The Magic Tuber Stringband "Needlefall"
Magic Tuber Stringband, from North Carolina, are Courtney Werner and Evan Morgan. The duo are at the forefront of artists inhabiting the rich, living musical traditions of the Appalachian region, not as preservationists, but as fluent speakers shaping the forms with their inventive new ideas. The music, contemporary in nature, shares a through line with its history in both technique and in inspiration. Magic Tuber Stringband’s music, like traditional music of the region, exists in constant communion with the natural world. The duo’s music thrums with a primal, vital energy that speaks to an intimate relationship with both folk practice and the natural environment. Morgan is an organizer within the local music community, and Werner is a dedicated naturalist involved in local land stewardship. Needlefall answers the question “what does a modern string band sound like?” with powerful new arrangements of traditional songs and transcendent originals. The album is teeming with life, translating abundant ecosystems into arcing melodies and shimmering, mystic drones.
Much like the North Carolina wilds it reflects, Needlefall waxes and wanes from mysterious and unsettling to ecstatic and awe-inspiring, capturing the sacred dimensions of the natural world. “We’ve always been interested in how religious tradition takes on a more mystical form amongst people who are exposed more directly to the forces of nature,” the duo elaborate. “If you spend enough time out in the woods you inevitably see or hear things that are hard to explain. I’ve been in caves where it’s total darkness and you’re enveloped by the disorienting sound of dripping water. The natural sights and sounds in these places are often repetitive, percussive, expressive, sometimes unsettling – the way that water carves patterns into rock or tree trunks appear in endless rows.” The field recording running through “The Hermit’s Passage” into “Water Dripped Upwards” encapsulates such otherworldly experiences, recorded accidentally during a paranormal experience in the woods. Title track “Needlefall” translates the changing of the seasons into Terry Riley-esque minimalism, the group spinning subtly evolving rhythmic layers while striking a delicate balance between composition and improvisation.
Magic Tuber Stringband draw on a host of fellow travelers to realize Needlefall’s intricate arrangements. The album was recorded at an intimate space owned by members of Sluice and Weirs in one session with minimal overdubs. “We thought about how artists like Don Cherry, Marion Brown, and Terry Riley would bring people together for free improvisation but also set intentions or prompts and we tried to take a page from their book,” the duo explains. Touring member Mike DeVito’s subtle percussive flourishes enhance the natural rhythmic power of the music. Local music legend Crowmeat Bob adds to the album’s polyphony with clarinet and saxophone, leading an aching melodic lament on “The Long Suffering”s invocation of Greek folk tradition. String player Andy McLeod and saw player Dan Patridge add subtle instrumental flourishes to the group’s dense interlocking melodies without sacrificing the intricacy of the arrangements.
Needlefall exemplifies the diversity of contemporary folk movements, placing Magic Tuber Stringband’s work in the tradition of modern innovators like Moondog, Harry Partch, Pauline Oliveros, and labelmate Sally Anne Morgan. The vast forests and mountains that inspire the duo act as a metaphor for living music traditions – ever-changing and yet still standing, shaped over time by human hands while equally shaping the human experience.