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(2021) Farmer Dave & The Wizards of the West - Farmer Dave & The Wizards of the West
Review:
You may not know Farmer Dave Scher, but it’s almost impossible not to have heard him, and that’s before you listen to a note of Farmer Dave and The Wizards of the West. He was a member of Beachwood Sparks and All Night Radio, and has worked with Will Oldham, Kurt Vile, Interpol, Jenny Lewis, Elvis Costello and Animal Collective. And then there’s his agrarian side, as the man behind Farmer Dave’s Roasted Hot Nuts, a toothsome almond snack made from an old family recipe. There’s virtually nothing he can’t do based on his first LP in ten years. The music covers so much territory it’s hard to believe the whole thing is over in less than thirty-five minutes. Offering the kind of takeoff that wouldn’t be out of place on The Byrds The Notorious Byrd Brothers disc, “EXEGESIS” takes flight. Heading off into the stratosphere, “Cave Walls” rides in on a wave of guitars and keyboards as Farmer Dave sings, “You have style for miles, it’s plain to see / Reach for my hand and we’ll dive into the sea.” The guitars take over and the song for parts unknown under the hands of companion Brian Knight. Rounding out the band are bassist Brian Bartus and drummer Jud Birza. More straightforward (if such a thing can be said about Farmer Dave and The Wizards of The West) “Right Vibration” offers a guitar work of the highest order. “Ocean Eyes” lives in its own time signature (one not necessarily found in the real world). Echo and delay abound amongst the guitars and keys as Dave rambles on undeterred by playing in this everchanging sense of time. Part African spiritual, part Grateful Dead jam, “Stand & Deliver” ambles into sonic headspace mutating and changing as it goes. “Mutant Pill” treads a course towards 70s funk riffs, establishing that Farmer Dave goes wherever he wants and as listeners, we are helpless to do anything but follow. The country psych of “Babe Got Plans (For Me)” amps up the psych content during the mid-piece guitar rave out. For an absolute funk jam “Bohannon” takes over, ascending in a way that illustrates the depth of these musicians. The question becomes is there anything they can’t do? It’s a 2021 rave-out that shows the elasticity of time as they explore an 80s groove. Finally, there is psychedelic spree that is “Wipe Out,” where the early 60s are revisited in a late 60s interstellar haze and then transmuted into the twenty-first century. Farmer Dave and The Wizards of The West is a trip unlike anything else you are likely to take this year. They play with time zones and time signatures, trampling over anything that gets in their way. Not rude, but definitely unruly, they know no bounds. They go where they want, laying waste to anything that gets in their way. This is music that cannot be contained. Farmer Dave and The Wizards of The West demand your attention. Resistance is futile.
Tracklist:
01 - EXEGESIS
02 - Cave Walls
03 - Right Vibration
04 - Ocean Eyes
05 - Stand & Deliver
06 - Mutant Pill
07 - Babe Got Plans (For Me)
08 - Bohannon
09 - Wipe Out
Media Report:
Genre: psychedelic rock
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec, 16-bit PCM
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits |
