Chris Cohen, "Overgrown Path"

Cohen is mostly known around these parts for playing guitar in Deerhoof (his tenure began with Apple O', their best record) but he's also bopped around other indie acts as a band member or collaborator. And this here artifact is one killer solo record by the man. It has a cluttered, ramshackle vibe, sort of like a basement tape or an outsider 8-track thing. On first listen, the sounds seem hazy and jumbled, all piled atop one another. But keep going back to the short-ish album and you'll realize this some fully-formed, mature work. The songs are meticulously and skillfully crafted, rich with echoing passages and ambient textural sounds. The drums and bass are mixed at the fore, with a lot more piano than is obvious at first. The guitars are used sparingly. They add spice and occasionally dazzle, and they never take control. I'm loving the lead track, "Monad," embedded above, which goes from proggy and weird to harmonic and gentle to some serious "freak out the squares" stuff, all in just a few minutes. I also love the sweeter, slower tunes "Sunset" and "Open Theme." Chris' songs are sharply edited and sincerely delivered. And best of all, even when they get a little poppy, they're never lazy or familiar. Cohen works on the far fringes of pop, making songs of pure adventure. They're like the overgrown path. They twist and turn as they go up and up, asking you to duck under branches and trudge through mud, the wind whipping raw. Eventually you arrive at a weird precipice with an amazing view, and everything's an echo, and you can't see all the way down, and he's asking you to jump, and you're not sure why but you let go...