Doubtful Lake – a bass guitar duo comprised of Josh Machniak (aka Party Store) and Al Karpinski (Time Pieces, Six Parts Seven, many other things) – came about in response to the Ball of Wax 69 duos prompt. Their simple goal was to “make something using only bass guitars that was melodic and interesting to us,” and in my own semi-professional opinion, they have absolutely succeeded – even without the “for us” qualifier.
“Coordinates” starts with a warm, quiet wash of arpeggiated bass, calm and soothing despite the odd time signature. The second bass soon comes in with melodic lines in the low end, its crisp tone providing contrast. An interlude of whole notes – again in contrasting tones, now clean vs. distorted – suspends us momentarily, before we are placed back into the original riff, the second bass playing higher up at first in a variation on its original theme, and the cycle is repeated. For the third round, the first bass comes back in a different key, and its melodic counterpart keeps the distortion on for just a few higher melodic phrases, before the duo brings things to a close, with one bass drifting off softly and the other crashing down with some heavy low-end, as if to offer a parting reminder that, no matter how subtle and pretty it might be, this is, in the end, the land of bass.
I don’t know what Josh and Al’s future plans might be as far as this project goes, but I would absolutely love to hear a full album of double-bass meditations from these two some time. (And hey, fellas, if you’re ever looking to complicate things with a third bass [not to be confused with 3rd Bass], you know where to find me.)