This week the sound is exploring cosmic country-western and adjacent sounds like desert folk, ethereal palm springs and south american avant-pop. I go out to a West Texas “sky island” (aka Marfa, TX) a few times a year, if I’m lucky. The dust, the expanse and the juxtaposition of the place always make me consider a few things. This time, I thought a lot about the transitory nature of the desert in the American psyche. Always a place to go through. Never a place to be. What happens when art decides to be in the desert? That’s what we’re listening to this week.
We begin with Jessica Pratt’s new album. Here in the Pitch probably has nothing to do with the desert, except that I was in one when it came out, so now it has a lot to do with the desert, at least for me. But, you can hear it. The dusty vocals and ethereality, like the wind whipping through the agaves. The sound languidly spools itself out. It’s slow. It takes it time. It’s the opposite of how we live our lives. We move into William Tyler’s Highway Anxiety, an instrumental album that is “western” and not “country,” as Tyler clarified when I saw him play over the weekend. It was a surprise — I walked up to the bar and his name was on the marquee. This is an album I come back to all the time when I’m looking to quiet my mind. The textured electric guitar over warbled piano keys and cosmic synth gives it a lived-in quality that reminds me, inexplicably, of my grandfather. It’s like a good story, sans language. Or, rather, the language is there, but it’s up to you to interpret. Bill Madison’s honey-rich vocals bring us into a particular moment where a group of cowboys could get together and record a couple of songs about what they were doing — drinkin’, hanging out in the sun, fingerpicking the guitar, thinking about times passed. If you want to feel like you’re on your friends front porch listening to a couple of guys riff the western blues, start here. We take to the sky with Luke Schneider’s instrumental album. Let’s call it drone western. Maybe UFO western. It looks for it’s truth in the places you can’t see. The spaces between the stars, the holes between the air. Most of his sound (if not all of it) is done by putting effects over and looping a singular pedal steel. The layering feels urgent, like looking for something in the dark. We end with Argentinian avant pop artist Juana Molina, who takes drone and ethereality and puts it over staccato rhythms and upbeat percussion, though some songs are stripped back, purely cosmic. I came to Molina through Alejandro Zambra’s novel Chilean Poet.
Enjoy.
The playlist
Monday
Here in the Pitch - Jessica Pratt (2024)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Tuesday
Modern Country - William Tyler (2016)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Wednesday
Sunday Mornin’ Hayride - Bill Madison (1973)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Thursday
Altar of Harmony - Luke Schneider (2020)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Friday
Halo - Juana Molina (2017)
Spotify / Apple Music / YouTube / Other streaming services
Pair with
Cold Miso-Sesame Noodles. I’m thinking a lot about warm weather foods now that it’s getting hot in Texas (and maybe where you are too). I think this will be the summer of the cold noodle.
Hyperspace by Alta Marfa. A textured, skin-contact Roussanne from Texas vines and a Texas winemaker.
Wonder Valley Rosemary Hair Oil. A hair oil for those of us whose hair gets dry and tangled in the summer heat. Wonder Valley started in California and relocated to Marfa a few years back.
What will not cohere: On Valerie Hsiung. This survey and contemplation on the work of Valerie Hsiung, poet and author. What is coherent is the material that is being blown to bits or released into the air and scattering. The sound betrays what’s happening.
Have a great week.