“Spirals Down Part 3” is the second Ball of Wax offering this year from instrumental duo Trash Lights, and compared to the sprawling “Second Movements,” it’s a tiny, compact gem of musical concision. But Steven Andrea and Brendon Helgason can pack a lot into 2 and a half minutes and two musical ideas. We begin with a sharply-struck guitar string commencing a slow, arpeggiated guitar part in 5/4 (there it is again!), drenched in reverb. Overtones and subtones and strange crackling noises phase in and out. Just when we start to think it might be here forever, the guitar line starts to disappear, and up from the depths comes a strangely plucked descending bass line, sticking around just long enough to make you wonder whether it’s a bass guitar, an upright bass, or a long piece of twine stretched over a sheet metal shelving unit. Then it all fades out into more shimmering reverb.
“Spirals Down Part 3,” while it’s short and does work as a discrete track, is one part (I would wager the third) of a four-track EP that Trash Lights will be unleashing upon us before we know it. Keep your eye on their Bandcamp page for more.