Baths - Cerulean

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4...according to our Business Lady on Thu 29 Jul, 2010.

Baths is a the work of Will Wiesenfeld who is most notable for his Post-Foetus project. Here we see him having a bash at writing a modern hybrid form of dance orientated pop music that sits handily between previous Anticon releases and the slew of glow-fi, chillwave, psych pop that's doing such good business at the moment. This is a crazy fun record to be fair. Powerful multi instrumentalism as well as excellent self sampling and home studio trickery are on full display here, oh the beats are badass too. Obvious comparisons would be Washed Out, Neon Indian or Small Black yet this brings to mind the likes of Memory Tapes, Boards Of Canada and perhaps Four Tet due to it's ability to weave dreamlike atmospherics whilst still packing a punch in the beats department. You could get your dancing thing on to these tunes no problem but it's also a reflective, meditative collection of songs full of bold songwriting ideas and strange multi layered vocal choirs that appear to sound like the same guy (technology nowadays...they can do anything). Good stuff. Totally recommended.

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* “Will Wiesenfeld connects the dots between the sun-drenched haze of glo-fi torchbearers (Washed Out, Toro Y Moi) and the woozy beat math that lights the spliffs of Los Angeles' Brainfeeder collective (Flying Lotus, the Gaslamp Killer)” PITCHFORK

* Cerulean is the stunning debut of L.A.'s Baths. Evolving out of Will Wiesenfeld's varied [Post-Foetus] project, and inspired by the energy of the city's burgeoning beat scene (Daedelus introduced Anticon to Baths), the record represents a clear departure from both – an often warm, acoustic-fueled electronic music that hews closer to the work of
contemporaries like Toro Y Moi and Flying Lotus. By combining songwriting with self-sampling, raw musicianship with synthesized textures, and field recordings with propulsive beats, Baths has created a seething sound-cloud packed with bright moments and prone to unexpected turns.

* For evidence, look no further than album opener "Apologetic Shoulder blades." Here, a swooning choir of vocals (every voice on Cerulean belongs to Baths) catches a wave of skittering percussion and rides forth in epic fashion. The effect is more baroque pop than bass thump – a digitally infused dust storm that sounds like vintage Broken Social Scene gone glitch. The song that follows, "Lovely Bloodflow," is equally eclectic, spinning rich gloom out of organic, Books-like cut- and-paste and Baths' strange, soulful crooning.

* A general romanticism persists on Cerulean, both in its lushness of sound and in Baths' lyrics as they capture the whimsy and wistfulness of relationships. On the taut, piano-driven "♥," he sings of two lovers escaping under the cover of night, voice swaying and quavering à la Daniel Rossen in Department Of Eagles. For "Aminals," the album's most unabashedly joyous track, Baths lets others do the talking, weaving children's voices into a field of instruments first played live, then chopped into interlocking bits.

* Baths excels at crafting thick, living compositions that, while dense, never sound needlessly busy. To this end he employs guitars, bass, various keys, snapping scissors, clicking pens, rustling blankets and more. On record, these sounds lose their origins, congealing into roiling melodic tracks like "Hall" and "Plea," or delivering something stormy and ebullient, like late-album standout "You're My Excuse To Travel." In either case, Cerulean handily portrays Baths as a vital new talent unbound by genre and spurred on by song.

* Mega-Limited colour vinyl LP.

TRACKLIST:

1. Apologetic Shoulder Blades 2. Lovely Bloodflow 3. Maximalist 4. ♥ 5. Aminals 6. Rafting Starlit Everglades 7. Hall 8. You're My Excuse To Travel 9. Rain Smell 10. Indoorsy 11. Plea 12. Departure

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