Smoosh - Withershins
Really good. It feels unambitious, but ambition is not the mark. Ambition is by definition an overreach. This is music which is solidly true and a foundation for discovery. This is music by people comfortable with their limitations, for whom limitations are an outpouring of humanity.
The piano playing is cool, a slowed-down Terry Riley repetitiveness that spirals.
The music somehow feels like a cross between Robert Wyatt and The Evens - the hazy sound of Wyatt with the rhythmic phrasing of Amy Farina. The melodies and lyrics are rather more pop and carefree than those of either of those pillars, who have perhaps rested more deeply into their personhood than Smoosh.
The song structures are thrumming, like a horse swimming upstream.
It would be interesting if this band found a new member, other than the three sisters who have mutually honed their taste and technique over the years. Perhaps some raw dynamite-stick with a temper, or a dragged-out banjist, or an Einar-Orn.
1 year ago
