Cheap Thrills - May 2022
This month: downtempo, ambient folk, drone doom, and more!
Oblique Occasions - Anathema
Last month, I mentioned how I recently discovered Andre Maximillion's work as Forbidden Cremme and Haircuts for Men. Well, it turns out that the algorithms that be decided to take me further down this modern downtempo rabbit hole, leading me directly to Oblique Occasions. Anathema is the latest release from this prolific artist, and it simply oozes cool. Much like the aforementioned Haircuts for Men, its jazzy plunderphonics sound making for a great soundtrack for a nighttime walk through the city...or an evening spent sitting at a desk, illuminated only by the glow of a computer monitor. Whatever works for you!
Harry Pedigo - Rivermen
I'm a relatively recent convert to country and bluegrass. Beyond the stock complaints about corporate pop country and its obsession with trucks, beer, and women drinking beer in the backs of trucks, the real reason that kept me away from this sort of music was my aversion to the oft-exaggerated vocal twang that only seemed to become more cartoonish over the years. Artists like Shakey Graves and Chris Thile (via Punch Brothers and his collaboration with Michael Daves) eventually won me over with their virtuosic playing, though it still took me a while to warm up to their country-tinged crooning.
Harry Pedigo occupies a similar space in my music library. His debut full-length album, Rivermen, was recently put out by Old Mill Productions, a label that primarily releases folk metal, black metal, and dungeon synth. I figured that if they were going to promote Mr. Pedigo, then perhaps I should give his music a shot. Now I'm glad that I did! Not only is Pedigo a talented multi-instrumentalist who handles vocals, guitar, harmonica, and fiddle duties - his music feels authentic, clearly grounded in his love for the genre and his community. "Down-to-earth" is a fairly generic descriptor to use, but here it is made almost literal due to the album's depiction of the Ohio River Valley. "I'll die a riverman," Pedigo sings on the opening track, with nary a hint of irony or shame; "The muddy water's in the family blood / and it never quite comes clean". At the very least, you have to respect that level of earnestness (especially when it comes from someone who performs in a tie dye Incantation shirt).
Sea Oleena - Weaving a Basket
Ambient is one of the most deceptive genres of music, its name implies a passive listening experience in which one can "set it and forget it". This is obviously not true, as there is so much melody and texture to appreciate in a good ambient release, but stereotypes die hard.
Sea Oleena is the alter ego of one Charlotte Oleena, and while it may not be the most covert stage name around, it certainly captures gentle, fluid nature of her music. Weaving a Basket is an achingly beautiful ambient album with touches of folk, similar to the works of Grouper and Julianna Barwick. Oleena's singing is tender, almost fragile; vocal melodies flutter like gossamer threads over ethereal acoustic guitar and swelling waves of synthesizer. Let this album wash over you, and you will not soon forget it.
Pretend - Bones in the Soil, Rust in the Oil
This is 2019 remaster of the band's 2009 debut, which presented a (then) novel blend of math rock and post rock. The syncopated grooves and noodling of the former were such a perfect match for the extended, textural compositions of the latter, and over a decade later, Bones in the Soil still holds up. This isn't to say that math and post rock haven't continued to develop in their own ways, but rather that Pretend managed to combine the best elements of the two genres while avoiding many of their pitfalls, even on their very first album. The interplay between the instruments, especially the two guitars (which are panned pretty far to the left and right), feels intimately conversational, and there are times where it sounds like the musicians are finishing each others' sentences. Not to be outdone, the equally capable rhythm section masterfully controls the pacing of each track while still delivering jaw-dropping performances throughout. And while Bones in the Soil is not an instrumental album, the vocals are almost incidental. They appear where appropriate, sounding a bit like a cross between American Football's Mike Kinsella and Codeine's Stephen Immerwahr.
It's been a real pleasure to revisit this one. I had very nearly forgotten about Pretend, so this remaster was a welcome surprise, even if I stumbled across it three years too late.
Bismuth - The Slow Dying of the Great Barrier Reef
A few weeks ago, I discovered Bismuth through their recent split with sludge doom band Vile Creature. I immediately tracked down Bismuth's other material, and my search lead me to their latest full-length album from 2018. This stuff is heavy in concept and sound: the title track is a lengthy dirge for one of the largest coral reefs in the world whose climate-related decline has been well documented for decades. After ten minutes of ominous low-end rumble, the song lurches into motion, guitars and drums colliding like tectonic plates in a subduction zone. The second track, while 80% shorter, still bears the same crushing weight of its predecessor, bludgeoning the listener with huge sludge metal riffs that are sure to leave a bruise or two. What the album lacks in variety it more than makes up for in sheer seismic force.
Sentient Horror - Ungodly Forms
New Jersey's own Sentient Horror is the brainchild of Matt Moliti, a guitarist and vocalist who really, really likes early 90's Swedish death metal. As the band was promoting their third full-length album earlier this year, I decided to check out Ungodly Forms, their 2016 debut. It is a love letter to the Sunlight Studios sound popularized by bands like Dismember, Entombed, and Grave. All the boxes are checked (probably in fake blood, if we want to keep this metaphor going): chainsaw guitars, guttural roars, lyrics straight out of a slasher flick, tastefully melodic leads. Oh, and the album was mixed by Damian Herring of Horrendous and mastered by Dan Swanö of Edge of Sanity, just in case you couldn't tell that this was an old school death metal revival album. What's not to like?
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Those are your Cheap Thrills for the month of May! I was technically late with this one, but who's counting? In any case, spend a few bucks and support the artists if anything piqued your interest. I already have a few albums lined up for June, so hopefully the next installment will be on time.
Cheers!