UK artist Westerman returns with his first offering in two years with the song “Idol; RE-run” out via Partisan Records. The new track, produced by James Krivchenia and Westerman, juxtaposes gentle and celestial sonics with an aggrieved disposition and features artwork by renowned New York via Portugal Graphic Designer and Illustrator Bráulio Amado. The song was written after Westerman emerged from a period of disenchantment with making music, and with the future of his career feeling abstract, it seemed unclear to Westerman whether the material he was recording would ever be heard. Creatively, this offered a strange kind of freedom, and accommodated some of the most adventurous and unselfconscious songwriting of his career. Finding textures became a central concern taking programming and looping into his own hands in a way he never had before, creating polyrhythmic grooves to lend urgency to his inner dialogue. “Idol; RE-run” is the first taste of songs written in this period and provides a hint for what’s to come from Westerman in the coming year. The track features James Krivchenia, Mikel Patrick Avery and Booker Stardrum on drums, Ben Reed on bass, Luke Temple on synth, Mat Davidson on piano, Robin Eubanks on the trombone and of course Westerman on vocals, guitar and synth.
Speaking about the new song, Westerman shares: “The lyrics to the song were written around the same time as the storming of the Capitol. The compulsion towards the pedestal is strong. The need to scapegoat and revere without logic. Our populists actively celebrate their being people who don’t know anything other or better than anyone else, yet these spectres with their failings conduct our anger and resentment as if they were gods. They are nothing more than the shadow of something else, the face fronting a need to be loved or revered present in everyone. And there will always be another face to front.”
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Twain is the singer/songwriter project of multi-instrumentalist Mat Davidson, onetime member of the Low Anthem and Spirit Family Reunion. Consistently melodic and brittle, Twain’s material has spanned experimental lo-fi and intimate indie folk.
Hailing from Franklin County, Virginia, Davidson began recording as Twain in the mid-2000s. He self-released the albums Sleeping Tree and Almanack before joining indie folk group the Low Anthem in 2009 as bassist/multi-instrumentalist. Still making time for Twain, he put out Love Is All Around in July 2010, then appeared on the Low Anthem‘s 2011 LP, Smart Flesh, before leaving the group later that year. While with the Low Anthem, he also joined Americana outfit Spirit Family Reunion on fiddle, leaving that band in early 2014 to refocus on Twain.
Recorded straight to tape and mastered in analog, 2014’s Life Labors in the Choir channeled blues-like rawness into wounded folk. Also released in 2014, Twain-Tone Rally-Race: Collected Recordings 2005-2008 repackaged Sleeping Tree and Almanack. Intended as a full-length in progress with demos and live performances, the Sir Kitchen Boy EP followed in 2015, and the Alternator EP, released in 2016, featured all new songs.
In 2017, Twain signed with Austin, Texas-based Keeled Scales and toured in support of acts such as Big Thief, Langhorne Slim, and the Deslondes. With bassist Ken Woodward and drummer Peter Pezzimenti credited as bandmembers, their label debut, Rare Feeling, arrived that October. ~ Marcy Donelson, Rovi
