We last heard from Seattle producer James Whetzel back in volume 48, [he was also on volume 49; he’s a busy guy -ed.] and he returns to this volume of long songs with “Slow Waves.” With a wash of reverberating guitars and a minimum of harmonic movement, “Slow Waves” is dreamy minimalism at its most welcoming and appealing. There’s not real percussion to force order to the swaying electric guitar parts nor dynamics to differentiate one section from the other, it’s just a kind of hip, blissful drift. This could be chill-out music or on the soundtrack of a cool film about cave diving or space travel. I had it on a loop so its 10 plus minutes spread to the better part of an hour and it ended up being a really nice hour. Nicely done, James.
Whetzel will perform a solo set to open up the Ball of Wax 51 release show on March 9th at Substation.