MATT GOLD - Imagined Sky
Whirlwind: WR4759
Matt Gold: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, voice, analog synthesizer, wurlitzer electric piano, mellotron; Bryan Doherty: electric bass; Jeremy Cunningham: drums; Macie Stewart, Sara Serpa: voice; Dan Pierson: analog synthesizer; Myra Hinrichs: violin; Matt Ulery: double bass
Recorded by Anthony Gravino at The Drake, Chicago
Previously, Gold has played with jazz artists such as Greg Ward or Makaya McCraven and with RnB singer Jamila Woods. So, he is clearly at home across different styles. The strummed opening chords over a shuffling drumbeat merge into guitar line that is heavy on the trebly and the Americana. Here, Gold and the rhythm section create a rich atmosphere of a sultry evening in the southern States; not for nothing is this called ‘Augusta Fairgrounds’. As an opening track, this certainly catches the listener’s attention and there is something of the immediacy and simplicity of a television theme tune here. It also highlights the guitarists debt to folk music in all its forms, whether this is filtered through the classical idiom of Dvorak or melded with the rhythms of rock. In the second track, ‘Queen Anne’, Stewart’s clear vocals deliver a song that effortlessly veers between what sounds like a traditional tune and guitar solos, drenched with sustain, that carry the power of Grunge and complexities of math-rock. What you do feel across all the pieces is the tremendous confidence that Gold brings to his playing; not a single note feels out of place, any note that smudged is done so deliberately because it fits and the effects applied to the guitar (sustain and reverb plus the treble set high) give him a sound that you feel is carving out a space of his own. The compositions often have a cinematic quality, time and again I caught glimpses of Westerns or Gangster films that reinforce a set of myths about America. What I particularly liked about the tunes was that, given this sense of America that this Chicago-based guitarist conveys in his compositions, was that none of these felt jingoistic or aggressive but much more along the lines of honest, heart-felt reflection of place, belonging and growth. Perhaps, another way of saying this is that the tunes feel as if they are reckoning with America’s history which, in these troubled times, is no mean feat. ‘Truehearted’ (track 5), sung by Gold, features the album’s title in the lyrics, sung over a lilting guitar line.
Throughout these songs, Gold’s ability to raise and lower the heat (both in his compositions and his playing) has that ‘quiet-loud’ feel that was to basis of Grunge, but he is doing this with hugely complicated and intricate rhythms and melodies that are much more difficult to place – my use of the words Americana or folk do as much as disservice to the music here as the words rock, Grunge and math-rock, because these pieces are all of these styles and so many more. His ease with so many different styles of music and the irony and delight with which he mixes and matches across these is apparent on the closing track, ‘Bottom of the barrel, which begins with a country twang, segues into a brash solo over what sounds suspiciously like the middle eight of ‘With a little help from my friends’ and then reverts back to country to more or less bring the album full circle. The final chord and the cymbal crash provide a fitting announcement that Matt Gold is here on his first solo album and he means business.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
Whirlwind: WR4759
Matt Gold: electric guitar, acoustic guitar, voice, analog synthesizer, wurlitzer electric piano, mellotron; Bryan Doherty: electric bass; Jeremy Cunningham: drums; Macie Stewart, Sara Serpa: voice; Dan Pierson: analog synthesizer; Myra Hinrichs: violin; Matt Ulery: double bass
Recorded by Anthony Gravino at The Drake, Chicago
Previously, Gold has played with jazz artists such as Greg Ward or Makaya McCraven and with RnB singer Jamila Woods. So, he is clearly at home across different styles. The strummed opening chords over a shuffling drumbeat merge into guitar line that is heavy on the trebly and the Americana. Here, Gold and the rhythm section create a rich atmosphere of a sultry evening in the southern States; not for nothing is this called ‘Augusta Fairgrounds’. As an opening track, this certainly catches the listener’s attention and there is something of the immediacy and simplicity of a television theme tune here. It also highlights the guitarists debt to folk music in all its forms, whether this is filtered through the classical idiom of Dvorak or melded with the rhythms of rock. In the second track, ‘Queen Anne’, Stewart’s clear vocals deliver a song that effortlessly veers between what sounds like a traditional tune and guitar solos, drenched with sustain, that carry the power of Grunge and complexities of math-rock. What you do feel across all the pieces is the tremendous confidence that Gold brings to his playing; not a single note feels out of place, any note that smudged is done so deliberately because it fits and the effects applied to the guitar (sustain and reverb plus the treble set high) give him a sound that you feel is carving out a space of his own. The compositions often have a cinematic quality, time and again I caught glimpses of Westerns or Gangster films that reinforce a set of myths about America. What I particularly liked about the tunes was that, given this sense of America that this Chicago-based guitarist conveys in his compositions, was that none of these felt jingoistic or aggressive but much more along the lines of honest, heart-felt reflection of place, belonging and growth. Perhaps, another way of saying this is that the tunes feel as if they are reckoning with America’s history which, in these troubled times, is no mean feat. ‘Truehearted’ (track 5), sung by Gold, features the album’s title in the lyrics, sung over a lilting guitar line.
Throughout these songs, Gold’s ability to raise and lower the heat (both in his compositions and his playing) has that ‘quiet-loud’ feel that was to basis of Grunge, but he is doing this with hugely complicated and intricate rhythms and melodies that are much more difficult to place – my use of the words Americana or folk do as much as disservice to the music here as the words rock, Grunge and math-rock, because these pieces are all of these styles and so many more. His ease with so many different styles of music and the irony and delight with which he mixes and matches across these is apparent on the closing track, ‘Bottom of the barrel, which begins with a country twang, segues into a brash solo over what sounds suspiciously like the middle eight of ‘With a little help from my friends’ and then reverts back to country to more or less bring the album full circle. The final chord and the cymbal crash provide a fitting announcement that Matt Gold is here on his first solo album and he means business.
Reviewed by Chris Baber
