Friday, July 15, 2016

50 Foot Wave - Bath White EP


Throwing Muses has existed as a three piece for some time now: Kristin Hersh and perennial drummer Dave Narciso along Bernard Georges on bass. 50 Foot Wave simply swaps Narciso for Rob Ahlers, but the differences are marked more by Kristin Hersh's shifted priorities. Too many artists get calmer as their career goes on, when they should get angrier. Hersh gets this, and 50 Foot Wave is Hersh's way of  indulging that without changing what Throwing Muses and her solo albums are about.

Though it once released a 25 minute standalone single, 50 Foot Wave is generally not a band concerned with making long and sprawling musical statements. As such, most of its releases are EPs. The title track's origins are in the ocean, which is an apt aural reference point for the EP in the way it subsumes the listener with sound and doesn't stay still. Bath White simultaneously complements 2011's With Love from the Men's Room EP and expands on it, and if you needed confirmation of Kristin Hersh's enduring importance, this is it.





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