Wet Hair - 08 Tour Tape (Night People CS)

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With the sad demise of Raccoo-oo-oon this past year, the underground lost one of its most fertile sources for warped and expansive sound journeys. But when one flower withers, an ample amount of bacteria is sure to manifest, and so the circle continues with Night People head Shawn Reed’s new project with Ryan Garbes, Wet Hair. Luckily, the similarities between the two projects more or less stop there, as the latter does a much more in depth analysis of the mental cavities than Raccoo-oo-oon’s epic scale and velocity could allow for.

On this particular tape, the unit split a c30 in half on both sides to present four angles on their sound. Opening with “White Strobe Void,” directionless synth lines seep into garbling electronic lurch that opens things in a rather unsettled fashion. Guess they figure once they have you there they can take you anywhere, and its true. The following “Black Sand” bends the directionless shape of the previous track into a synth pop voyage into the blue yonder, as bouncing lines and cartoon bloops sway along, peacefully building themselves toward something far more intoxicated than the initial cutesiness entailed. Sounds a bit like Ducktails or any of the other current harnessers of tropically good vibes, though it’s a bit more psychedelic and oozy than they’re wont to do, especially when the vocal utterings come drifting in.

The second side opens with “Saturns Return,” which starts more or less where the first side left off. Organ lilts along patiently before fading into a bliss of electronic lines and deep background drone that keeps itself nice and grounded despite the lofty illusions it plays on your upper half. Having disintegrated into a clunkier version of itself, the track soon fades out in favor of the closing “Electric Annihilation,” an ultra-slow excursion into the belly of psychedelic head-noddery. Here, Reed’s thick organ drone progressions and Garbes’ clattering drums mesh into a spaced out void where vocals can drip out from the clustered center. Garbes, for those who haven’t been clued in, is a real motherfucker of a drummer, and he exhibits it here as he balances free improvisational scattershot with undeniable pulse; there’s not a beat underplayed. As the synth comes in and contributes to the wash, the whole thing has an almost minimalist effect as it supports you from below with the sheer quantity of repeating lines. When the vocals enter repeating “we are going” over and over you really can’t help but agree. An impressive effort, as has come to be expected from the Night People camp.