It’s possible that the title of Baton Rouge-based duo Hal Lambert and Mitchell Mobley’s album “The A-Z of Bullshit” belies the complexity and extent of its appeal. It’s both propulsive and static; tromping and soaring; humid and arid; charmingly languid and shit-kickingly insistent. It smiles at you wryly even as it considers the plane of eternity.
From guitars, drums and other percussive devices, and some banjo work (with a splash of Mellotron from Ben Livingston, who produced and recorded the album at Earthship Records,) Lambert and Mobley conjure a fascinating and pleasingly varying world where most of the action unfolds in midair.
There is much to suggest a sensation of hovering, an unfurling of wings, of climbing altitudes, of riding currents that only seem to materialize when the final cloud has been left both below and behind. What begins at ground level in easy-going, friendly pockets of sound inevitably vaults itself into the atmosphere to touch at something sublime.
Each piece that finds itself propelled to these heights blooms in unique and surprising ways. Some notes shatter and crystallize, while others fall asleep mid-flight and begin to dream. Some move forward in soft, tumbling spirals, and yet others cascade through the open air, roaringly jettisoning themselves back towards the earth from which they came. This is a proper slice of modern American kosmische that may particularly appeal to fans of Blacks’ Myths, Mute Duo, and Sunburned Hand of the Man. Let it infuse you with some shining, exhilarating peace.
-Jen Powers, August 2023
credits
released September 29, 2023
Hal Lambert - Guitar, Banjo
Mitchell Mobley - Drums, Percussion, Banjo, Additional Guitar on "Emmy Lou"
Ben Livingston - Mellotron on "Emmy Lou"
Recorded and Produced by Ben Livingston at Earthship Records
Cover photo by Mazzarie Parker
supported by 42 fans who also own “The A-Z of Bullshit”
it's hard getting this kind of genre right. the use of vocals are a nice touch, but mostly what makes this so good is how long the songs are and how tasteful the inclusion of synthesizers and violin is. time to build and transform, bring in new textures and instrumentation, all with a mood and soundscape that is enticing to get lost within alienasu
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