Baths - The Nothing

Our review
Customer reviews
Press release

5...according to our Clinton on Fri 04 Mar, 2011.

Having been given the bulk of this weeks slop, its nice to know that hidden amongst it is a record I actually like. I was very impressed by Baths album earlier in the year and here they are with a 7" which, if you haven't already got the album, is a good place to start. They peddle something that sits somewhere between the clever nerd pop of your Why?'s or Fog's but with a production style that is all post Prefuse 73 samples and loops and which sits in nicely with your Washed Out/Toro Y Moi brand of 80's influenced dream pop. Both sides are glorious technicolour bursts of dreamy hip hop influenced avant pop, the A side upbeat and catchy, the B side folky and dreamlike. If you have already bought the album you'll be pleased to note that these two tracks are new and exclusive. Hugely impressive.

Mega-limited 7”, 300 only for Europe

The still bubbling groundswell of enthusiasm for Bath’s debut album Cerulean has done nothing to slow the L.A.-based
producer’s roll. On a pair of new gems released by Anticon digitally and on vinyl, Will Wiesenfeld handily displays that
fantastic knack for creating compact, inventive pop tunes steeped equally in the artist’s classical background and in
future-leaning electronics.

“The Nothing” opens with Will’s downshifted choral vocals and quickly gives way to a gluey mix of aquatic thump and grainy synth. Over this, his voice coasts unaffected as he cheerily sings through gritted teeth, “All of the nothing that I do / And no fucking world view / ... / I need to get out and find the love of my life.” A glitchy surge washes us clean for the triumphant finish.

On the other side, “Nightly, Daily” finds fingers on frets, bows on strings, and boy-girl vocals dancing beneath a lo-fi bedroom wash. Friend and photographer Hanna Shapiro guests, lending not only her voice, but the very lyrics that she coos. The lush results, fittingly recorded in her Laurel Canyon home, showcase Will’s gift as a conductor of small, beat-driven symphonies.

Wiesenfeld's trip into music making began at age 4, when he willed his parents into enrolling him in piano lessons. (The
family upright purchased that same year, sits in his bedroom today.) By 13, he'd begun recording his own music using
Digital Performer and a MIDI keyboard - a brief, ill-advised foray into Eurobeat that was set right when Wiesenfeld heard Björk for the first time. Mind blown, he quickly boned up on viola, contrabass, and guitar and took the name [Post-Foetus], stringing together countless live configurations to execute his increasingly inimitable compositions. With Baths however, his eclecticism has found its greatest focus yet, in a hail of lush melodies, ghostly choirs, playful instrumentation and stuttering beats.