Krist Krueger (Southerly, Sndtrkr, Yardsss, Healersss, and Self Group in general) can be a tricky guy to keep a bead on, as you might guess from that parenthetical list following his name. You can read my previous attempt to keep his various projects straight in this piece from 2011, but he has zigged and zagged a couple times since then, retiring most of his other projects and focusing on Almsss, the newest incarnation. (At least I think that’s what’s going on.)
But honestly, none of that really matters. The music – as always with Krueger, whatever the moniker – is solid: a dense forest of thick, blasting beats, overdriven guitar, and simple, chanting melodies spooling out in his clear, unaffected baritone. Whether he’s hunched over a Fender Rhodes behind a projection screen, creating drone soundscapes, or singing and playing a guitar, the sounds he makes are always worth paying attention to. Plus, I’m a sucker for songs in 5/4, and stoked that I get to start this volume with two different examples of the form.