Baths - Cerulean (2010) [Japanese Edition - Tugboat Records] [FLAC] [log cue]

Artist: Release: Cerulean
MusicBrainz: cc09ccaa-d81e-4939-8ff8-e90e8fafe142
Released: 2010-06-22 / 2011
Label: Tugboat Records
Country: JP
Style: Instrumental

Tracklisting:

01. Apologetic Shoulder Blades (02:30)
02. Lovely Bloodflow (03:35)
03. Maximalist (03:20)
04. ♥ (03:17)
05. Aminals (03:18)
06. Rafting Starlit Everglades (03:53)
07. Hall (03:32)
08. You're My Excuse to Travel (03:35)
09. Rain Smell (04:24)
10. Indoorsy (02:45)
11. Plea (04:16)
12. Departure (04:49)
Japanese Bonus tracks:
13. Petals (05:17)
14. Calliope (05:36)

Album Review - by Ian Cohen

Is there too much of a good thing going on in Los Angeles right now? Considering how instrumental Flying Lotus has been in building a scene of likeminded beatmakers, it was a bit jarring when he admitted to Pitchfork that "a lot of halfway kids, come out here, kids who started making beats six months ago, thinking they can get on stage because their drums are off." It's possible that sort of people he might be talking about would share a similar profile to Will Wiesenfeld: 21 years old, hailing from a sleepy, suburban outpost like Chatsworth, and employing non-quantized drumbeats to... gah, make love songs. But Wiesenfeld's C.V. checks out: despite his age, he's a veteran, previously working in the classically-informed but unclassifiable [Post-Foetus] before being invited by Daedalus to open for a Destroy L.A. show featuring FlyLo and Nosaj Thing. It was there that Baths was born, and with Cerulean, he places himself as something of the pop voice that the L.A. beathead scene never realized it needed.

Wiesenfeld reacted negatively on his MySpace at this site's use of the word "blunted" to describe "Maximalist", and I can understand where he's coming from. After all, his live videos on Yours Truly prove that this is music that's physically demanding to compose and perform, requiring deep concentration and focus. It's not a stretch to liken Baths to any number of beat-minded chillwavers, but the crucial difference is that where Toro Y Moi or Washed Out might let their sampled textures go slack to create a beanbag-ready laidback vibe, Baths' debut, Cerulean, is more suited to the weight bench. These beats have muscle. "Maximalist", for example, hits hard, but its force is drawn from sheer density. The track begins as a woozy wave before a low tide ushers in a Books-like sample stating, "It takes a lot of courage to go out there and radiate your essence." These are big feelings Wiesenfeld is trying to capture.

Cerulean has clear influences, but it also has its own point of view. It would probably be overload if the lyrics matched the density of the music, but the themes in Cerulean are pretty simple-- the desire for human connection and occasionally ("Indoorsy") a retreat from it. Wiesenfeld is the kind of artist who would write a Latin-tinged song about forbidden love that would show up on your iPod as "♥". And as much as the front-and-center emotionalism on the album threatens to collapse, the record comes unhinged only once, on "You're My Excuse to Travel", when matter-of-fact lyrics ("I love you enough to drive like an hour from wherever I am to be with you") filtered through a fork-in-socket vocal performance that recalls an electrified Passion Pit.

The sturdiest melody belongs to "Plea", and while the plea itself is a basic desire-- "Please tell me you need me"-- there's something deeper going on. It's addressed to a male figure, and Wiesenfeld lives in the battleground of Proposition 8, so the line, "We're still not valid," lends a crushing blow and possibly gives a new layer of meaning to "♥", where the lovers are on the lam because what they're doing is "wrong." But as with Franz Ferdinand's "Michael" or Bloc Party's "I Still Remember", it shouldn't be applauded simply because it's addressing the difficulty of gay relationships in what's otherwise a sexually blank scene. It should be applauded because it's a fantastic song.

When talking to Pitchfork earlier this year, Wiesenfeld was sheepish about the genesis of his stage name-- he just likes baths. But it's a thread that runs throughout Cerulean, trying to find an escape while remaining down to earth, searching for something magical in our day-to-day lives. Some find it in a drink; some find it in nature. Others will find it in Cerulean.

[YouTube) Baths - "Lovely Bloodflow"