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LP
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FTR 577LP
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"Paradoxically, the second LP by Spiral Wave Nomads documents the first time Albany-based guitarist Eric Hardiman and New Haven-based drummer Michael Kiefer attempted to play as two humans inhabiting the same locus inside the time/space continuum. The pair had been trading files and music for a good while. Their eponymous debut LP (FTR 455) was produced remotely and released too much rapture in May 2019. But they had never actually played together until later in that summer. First Encounters is raw documentation of what happened when they walked into the studio at Eric's, house, set up and let the music flow. Very much in the same headspace as their debut, the improvisations here combine sinewy, SCG-informed guitar lines with cymbal-rich percussion that moves in laterally jazzoid patterns. But that's not all of it. Other parts make me think of a stripped-down version of Feelies (during their brief mostly-instrumental phase in the early '80s) jumping deep into psych improvisation. In other spots I'm put in mind of tapes I've been hearing of '60s Bay Area guitarists getting themselves into 'trouble' while playing on acid. There are these moments where the guitarist (Garcia, Cipollina, Kaukonen, etc.) realizes they've hit a wall, and they either back down or they decide to take the wall apart. In the latter instances the players become de facto avant-gardists, since the deconstruction process is so different from their standard practices. Anyway, there's some of that here as well. Although given Hardiman's deep experimental roots, his moves are presumably a more conscious decision to go 'out.' The upshot is that the four tracks on First Encounters are wonderfully explosive, difficult to predict and utterly mind-melting. Just the thing to soak in during what looks to be a hard-ass winter. Spiral Wave Nomads' music reminds us that spring will eventually blossom again." --Byron Coley, 2020
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LP
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FTR 455LP
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"The debut LP by Spiral Wave Nomads introduces a new psych duo comprised of two musicians with active histories inside the New England sub underground. Guitarist Eric Hardiman is one of the many hardened string wranglers for Albany's legendary Burnt Hills, as well as the proprietor of the Tape Drift label and half of the prolific experimental unit, Century Plants. Drummer Michael Kiefer is best known as a member of Myty Konkeror and the exquisite trio that emerged from them -- More Klementines, whose eponymous album (2018) has made brains tingle all around the globe. The Spiral Wave Nomads set is a lovely sprawl of electric guitar improv (aided in spots by bass, sitar and double-tracked guitar) mixed with elegantly tumbling drum work, guaranteed to illuminate many tunnels of spiraling trip-time. Parts of the album may momentarily recall Rangda at their most lysergic, but the crossed-eyed way the two players have of busting up and hanging on to shards of melody and rhythm is all their own. If you liked the More Klementines album, I dare say you'll like this as well. But it's in a slightly different bag as well. Vibrationally consonant without resorting to apery. A beautiful sonic spread." --Byron Coley, 2019 Edition of 250.
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