Psychedelic plucking a go-go on mesmerising collection with special guests.
You’ve got to be a respected musician if you can have Dinosaur Jr supremo J Mascis guest on your new album – and when he does so it’s on electric sitar. Yet that’s exactly what Western Massachusetts musician Stephen Pierce has managed to achieve with his third album – his first fronting a four piece band. Gold Dust’s first two albums were broadly solo efforts – but with this he’s joined by Adam Reid (drums), Ally Einbinder (guitar) and Sean Greene (bass).
They’ve created a wonderful eight track psychedelic, indie americana sound – with jangly, fuzzy guitars, warm vocals and an interesting smorgasbord of influences including traditional folk and 90’s rock. The album is further enhanced by contributions from Anthony Saffery (Cornershop) playing sitar, Drew Gardner on vibraphone and Fred Thomas on synth and vocals.
The resulting songs are very much in the vein of War On Drugs, Spiritualised, Mercury Rev and Beulah – but have a distinctive feel of their own.
The album title is inspired by the writings of 11th-century philosopher Hildegard of Bingen. It’s a sonically brave and bold sounding album with brilliant production from Justin Pizzoferrato, who has worked with Pierce before and this has really helped the songs – he’s cleverly melded all the songs together – and this works so well.
The opener ‘Whatever’s Left’ sets the tone for what’s to come, with a gentle opening few bars, before an impactful jangly guitar sound interjects and Pierce’s dreamy vocals appear and there’s a great melody developing. Throughout this album there’s some seriously classy guitar work on show, perfectly complementing the other musical styles being shared.
Immediately the feel is slowed down on the second track, ‘Moths To The Glow’, a brief folky, psychedelic tune. This merges into the cornerstone of the album, ‘An Early Translation Of A Later Work’, with another great tune, supplemented by dreamy vocals and guitars jangling wildly and lovely banjo work in the background. Then we have the highlight – a barnstorming electric sitar solo from Mascis, which perfectly lifts a good tune into greatness.
Knowing this is the first time Pierce has recorded with his band, it’s hats off to all four, when they sound so cohesive as a quartet as they do, never more effectively demonstrated on ‘Germs Burn’. The playing and vocals merge together brilliantly and this would be a great band to catch live.
‘Last Call’ is a slower-paced number, but with the requisite jangly guitars, solid tune and really effective dreamy vocals gelling wonderfully. We end with ‘Whatever’s Left Pt II A Cactus In New England’ which has a seriously catchy banjo riff starting things off and then some powerful electric guitar riffs, before the vocals come in. It’s then a melange of all the sounds we’ve now got used to on the album, and it’s glorious.
It’s so refreshing to hear an album that’s a little different, but with americana as its grounding. Bravo all round.
