All Them Witches get their rock on, The Pursuits find their groove
All Them Witches
Effervescent
Nashville band All Them Witches released their Effervescent EP for free on July 1. The genre has been called psychedelic rock, stoner rock, blues jam, and whatever else.
Of course, genre titles can’t define this band or this EP. You have to listen to it yourself. The EP is just one track that runs for 25 minutes.
Even more surprising, if you know All Them Witches, is that this EP is completely instrumental. Singer Michael Parks Jr. steps away from the mic on this one to focus on his bass playing.
The Effervescent EP diverges from All Them Witches’ previous album Lightning at the Door. The absence of vocals is apparent, of course, but the motion of the music, too, is different. The dynamic structure of this EP feels more freeform, more gradual and unplanned, than Lightning at the Door. Effervescent sounds like a coherent jam session that these guys have played to perfection.
All Them Witches removed the crunchy, distorted riffs from this EP and replaced them with grooving bass, wandering Rhodes, and clean (ish) guitar leads that seamlessly walk Effervescent from its first minute to its last.
Ambience and patience are the cornerstones of this EP. Keys and guitar subtly move over drum and bass backbone to form a kind of ethereal skeleton of song. The EP rides on the consistence of interwoven drum and bass. The solidity of this drum and bass allows the keys and guitar to create ghostly, enchanting soundscape textures.
Everything about this EP is more relaxed, chiller. The effect is intentional and well received. Effervescent drives you from A to B and invites you to roll the window down, breathe the air, look all around you. All of a sudden, the 25 minute drive is over and you’re home. And the end of Effervescent is just that—home.
The Pursuits
Arbor
Nashville’s The Pursuits dropped their latest album on August 27. The album, titled Arbor, gets right into what makes The Pursuits a great listen.
Why is that exactly? For one, the vocals drift around each track, managing to be both up-front and in the background. The vocals float from haunting to soothing and, when they feel necessary, will crescendo to gritty aggression that leaves the lyrics raw and on the floor.
The guitar functions much the same way as the vocals. It oscillates between staccato rhythmic lines and sweeping chords with reverb packed on. Alternating between the two styles, the guitar operates twofold— creating memorable bursts of riffs and laid-back relaxing soundscapes for the bass and drums to build on.
And the bass and drums are practically one instrument on this album. The interplay between these two instruments is simultaneously simple and intricate. This rhythm section drives most of Arbor’s songs. The bass grooves hard or lays back on simple quarter notes and the drums match that pacing perfectly.
A prime example of The Pursuits cohesion is found on the first track “King Midas”. This near-eight minute long beauty encompasses most of The Pursuits range of sound. It begins with the eerie, echoing vocals and swaying guitar, then quickly moves into a fast-paced, funky drum beat. The bass follows that beat, accenting it with awesomely animated grooves. Later, the song moves into heavy reverb guitar chords that let you just sit back and chill.
The Pursuits killed it with the Arbor release. The entire album is consistent within itself and displays exactly what The Pursuits does best. We get great eerie vocals, an amazingly coherent rhythm section, and guitar riffs that can be funky and huge.
This album turned me on to The Pursuits.
Go listen to it and hear what Nashville hasn’t showed you yet.