Album Review: Baths - Obsidian

Baths
Obsidian
Rating: Woof Daddy

From the album cover alone, you know that Bath's second album Obsidian is going to be a darker, more heavy affair than his warm, liquidy debut Cerulean. This record is not so much a startling leap than a culmination of what was already there to begin with. Cerulean alone displayed Will Wiesenfeld’s immense talent as a producer, and his ability to mix together fractured Brainfeeder beats along with glitchy electronics and marrying them to his own skewed pop sensibilities. While Cerulean was a brilliant debut, you always got the sense that Wiesenfeld was holding back, that somehow he was just testing the waters, waiting to see whether his sound could hold up. When he started writing the follow up to Cerulean, Wiesenfeld was felled by a bout of E. coli that left he practically debilitated for several weeks, and that period along with his recovery colors every corner of Obsidian, a fascinatingly dark, obsessive record about life and death, relationships, success and failure, everything a young person would obsess over in the face of a debilitating illness. Obsidian is Baths hitting on all cylinders, a definitive statement of purpose.

Musically, Obsidian is not too far off the mark from Cerulean. It is still an electronic record for the most part, however, it is more widescreen and enveloping and less insular than its brother, and is breathtakingly varied and more muscular. Wiesenfeld's voice, a haunting falsetto, was used sparingly on his debut, and often filtered, twisted, and manipulated into something different that took away from its naked purity. Here, Wiesenfeld's voice is prominent in almost every track, wisely kept unadorned for the most part, giving these tracks a more human feel.

Off the bat you know you are in for something different, emerging from a funeral beginning of backwards masked vocals, synth drones, and crackling fires, "Worsening" evolves into stuttering beats, gently plucked guitars, and piano stabs pushing through the gloom into a hazy daylight. Wiesenfeld enters almost confessional lyrics like "Where is God when you hate him most/When the mouths in the earth come to bite at my robes" a perfect encapsulation of when your body fails you and it feels like you are never going to be well again.



"Miasma Sky" further delves into his sickness and fears of mortality asking "Miasma Sky would you swallow me alive/Realize there is very little you can do for me." The bleakness of the lyrics is belied by the peppy electronics and bouncy beats.



Electronics take a backseat on the gorgeous, piano and string led track "Ironworks," which finds Wisenfeld in a more poetic mode, recounting a tale of illicit love, culminated but always out of reach of something more: "A light spinning, we perform/And outside, left you again to your wife/Through Victorian doorways."



On Cerulean, most of the lyrics were abstracted or masked from meaning by Wisenfeld's studio trickery with his vocal manipulations. Here, on Obsidian, Wisenfeld almost enters the painfully direct landscapes of Xiu Xiu and Perfume Genius, however, Wiesenfeld's purpose here, unlike the others, is not shock and make uncomfortable, but to show more humanity and true emotion. In "Incompatible," the only intimacy the character finds in their relationship is that they "share a toilet seat," realizing that "On the nights you roll over and introduce yourself/I am elsewhere." This bleakness with regards to relationships in general falls over into the Nine Inch Nails' "Closer" thump of "No Eyes" with Wiesenfeld practically spitting at his lover "it is only a matter of/Come and fuck me/And it is not a matter of/If you love me."



There is a haunting air of illness, suffering, and death on this record, however, it is not a stultifying experience or claustrophobic in any way. Obsidian is too expansive and open for that to occur. Even on "Earth Death," the stunning standout track on the record, with Wiesenfeld singing "Come kill me, I seem so alone" is appears more of an observation than just a plea for help, the thunderous production of booming drums and electronic drones pulsing and throbbing like a beast at prey. And there are several tracks that are driving and forceful. From the skittering drums and piano rolls of "Phaedra," to the Cure like basslines of "Ossuary,"



Wiesenfeld shows a tremendous range and depth in his production skills, hemming things in when necessary, but always allowing for experimentation, like on the stop-starting push of "No Past Lives."



2013 has been a completely amazing year for music so far, already eclipsing 2012, which I thought would be an impossible task. Obsidian is not just a great record, it is the confirmation of Will Wiesenfeld as the major talent that was only hinted at on his debut record Cerulean. Each listen to this brilliant record brings more and more layers and textures out of it. Obsidian is one of the best records of the year, and will figure high in my year end lists.

Rating Scale:

Chilfos: masterpiece; coolest thing I've heard in ages.

Woof Daddy: excellent; just a hair away from being a masterpiece.

Grrrr: very good; will definitely be considered for my top releases of the year.

Yeah Daddy Make Me Want It: good; definitely invites further listens and piques one's interest for more material.

Meh: not horrible, but certainly not great; could have either been polished, trimmed, or re-thought.

Jeez Lady: what the hell happened? Just plain bad. They should hang their heads in shame and be forced to listen to Lady Gaga ad nauseam as penance.

Tragicistani: so bad, armed villagers with pitchforks and torches should run the artist out of the country for inflicting this abomination on the human race.