With each new submission to Ball of Wax – this is their third – Electric Bird Noise has upped the ante, each time bringing in more instruments, more structure, and, dare I say it, more muscle. “Hearn-Roberts III,” from the newly released album Hearn-Roberts-Strong-Watts, continues and solidifies this pattern. The addition of Bradley Wayne Roberts’s commanding bass lines, over Jason Hearn’s rocksteady drum work*, is a perfect complement to EBN’s signature off-kilter guitar work, which employs loops and an array of effects – along with a matched set of gifted ears and hands – to turn the guitar into a new instrument (perhaps we should call it the electric bird). I would be perfectly satisfied to hear much more from this or any of the previous iterations of EBN, but I can’t help but wonder what the next addition might be. Horns? Taiko drums? Bagpipes? Whatever direction Electric Bird Noise chooses to go, I am along for the ride.
*As you might have guessed, this album and its tracks are named after the players. This is the third piece on the album with this particular lineup.