Bought The Farm (OUEST095)
by Mister Water Wet
on West Mineral Ltd
via Boomkat -
Huerco S’ West Mineral Ltd label returns with this spellbinding debut of subtropical, Afro-Latinate jazz ambience from Mister Water Wet, a mentor of sorts to Brian Leeds aka Huerco S. It’s a richly evocative tapestry of sound that reminds us of listening to Gescom’s ‘Disengage’ radio show, infused with bits of interference and fizzing Exotika, or like Move D’s KM20 era recordings slowly disolving into the Conet Project’s noise station recordings via Ramzi’s asymmetric bliss.
Revealing Mister Water Wet’s music for the first time beyond his circle of friends, ‘Bought The Farm’ yields a highly atmospheric spirit guided by a first thought, best thought intuition through 55 minutes of crackly, hand-built music riddled with ephemeral soul. In terms of texture and structure, it’s a sound that can also be compared with Jan Jelinek at his most frayed and slompy, or even a pastoral inversion of Kelman Duran’s rugged chop ’n paste arrangements, essentially rendering a distinctive style that hovers between heavy-lidded, Afro-Latinate jazz, exotik instrumentation, and strains of gently bucolic, ambient introspection.
Although based in Kansas City, Mister Water Wet spends a lot of time with his pops in Puerto Rico, and the subtropical natural world and revolutionary politics of the Caribbean islands osmotically informs ‘Bought The Farm.’ In 10 parts ranging from zoned-out drifts to pockets of sweetly psychedelic delirium, Mister Water Wet uses a patented blend of found artefacts and dusty magick to literally and metaphysically connote his conception of a spiritual home, framing a portal from where he can “speak” to Pedro Albizu Campos, a leading figure of the Puerto Rican independence movement, while immersing listeners in his lushly verdant, oasis-like “bosques”, or naturally sprawling woodlands and iridescent rivulets of sound.
It’s a beautifully modest and intimate expression of ideas heard through the prism of the lands and spirits that shaped it. From the aeolian bleeps of ‘Walking West’ to the flutes snagged in the breeze of ‘Gadaduman Trades’, atavistic traces of the natural world and ancient traditions lead into moments of heart-rending dreaminess in the humble centrepiece of burnished drums and dream pop diva called ‘Dart’, before flowing out into oceanic new age with ‘Cuevas’, whereas highlights such as ‘Drought’ feel like a wood-fired interlude for BoC, and the heat curdled jazz-fusion of ‘Gills’ gives way to a memorably sublime parting statement in ’Sarah Sleeping.’
Sublime, psychedelic music.https://f4.bcbits.com/img/a2265593873_16.jpg
