Chuck Roth Watergh0st Songs

Label / Palilalia Records
Category / Folk, Experimental
Code / PAL-088

Is there only one room? the listener listens do they stay in their room and the room in which the songs were recorded comes to the listener? Or does the listener go to the room in which the songs were recorded? Or maybe the two rooms come together side by side in tandem, in balance, or in parallel, somehow joined? Songs of a person in a city going out of a room, looking. Easily walking down a familiar staircase. Foot leaving the last step before the landing. Standing briefly before the switchback, the same staircase becomes an entirely different world leading to the next remembered floor, imagining purposefully tumbling as if gymnast down the next flight, guaranteed without harm, the arc of the body filling up space in the maximum, most efficient, most expressive way possible in the narrowness, enlarging it in fact by gesture, catching the landing after the last step. Seven brief songs that seem to become daybreak and nightlight and open up somehow into layers of time, much more time than elapses. Songs sound like? It sounds like Chuck Roth. — ISTINA CARTER Chuck Roth’s music wanders. The New York-based guitarist’s inquisitive style builds from rippling patterns that center the physicality of his instrument, roaming wherever they take him. watergh0st songs, his Palilalia debut, collects songs from the past half-decade, presenting an intimate snapshot of his music that draws from an eclectic background in classical guitar, electronic music, and improvisation. The mark of watergh0st songs is its exploratory nature. Roth began his musical journey as a classical guitarist studying the canon works for the instrument, but he was never interested in playing fast or flashy. Instead, he wanted to roam down musical paths and see where they led him. He eventually became more interested in electronic music, where he found inspiration in subtractive properties and patterning. The music of watergh0st songs translates that electronic music to the guitar: many of the songs began as synth tones and later branched out through the physicality of his instrument. writing music, Roth wants melodies to feel comfortable in the body, focused less on setting a structure and more on letting music unfold how it happens in any given moment. His songs are fluid and his melodies are clear, plucked with careful attention but never too deterministically. His is the music of a traveler, floating around the strings of the guitar. It is about embracing the banal, or the everyday moments that shape a life. Though Roth’s music often feels quite direct, there is a dreaminess that lives inside of it. His lyrics don’t feel too hot or cold, instead they have a wistfulness and melancholy of what it feels like to live through every passing day. His exploratory style bolsters these lyrics, giving the music its sense of ennui, as does his focus on texture. Each track takes on a different structure: “Bunny Hop” unfolds like a squirrel jumping from branch to branch of a tree, while “Private Boy” has a slower approach, growing from delayed harmonics that almost sound like bowed strings. His textures range from metallic and bristling to soft and feathery, evolving with gentleness. It is about ending up somewhere different than where it started, and watching the notes that fall in-between. The embrace of the routine colors Roth’s music. In it, there is a sense of presence, of admiring the smallest details and moments. Roth loves to take walks and look around, observing the beauty of his surroundings. Similarly, watergh0st songs feels like moving through the world at the pace of a comfortable trot and soaking in every sound as it emerges. It is a quiet evolution but one that stays. — VANESSA AGUE This is a collection of songs I’ve written over the past two years or so. They change each time I play them live. I recorded them “live” to more honestly portray them as the blueprints that I play within. They are, therefore, not pristine objects and neither is my playing or singing pristine. I’ll keep practicing. I would like to thank Mark Alu, Webb Crawford, Sasha Gordon, Michael Imperioli, Chloe Morris, Bill Orcutt, Georgia Pettit, Kevin Reilly, Micaela Skoknic and John Veranes on their support while I was developing this music. — CHUCK ROTH

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Chuck Roth Watergh0st Songs

Same Label :: Palilalia Records

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