Our hyper-polarized world doesn’t lend itself to a bevy of Kumbaya moments. So when an album comes along espousing the tenets of spiritual naturalism, it can be a calming alternative to stealing your uncle’s blood pressure pills. That’s not to say one need prance around the Redwood forest, naked, to appreciate the interconnectedness of being, all while enjoying keyboard and mandolin. On the contrary, Aaron Laughlin – based in crunchy Humboldt, California – has recorded 20 minutes worth of earth loving harmony, to be digested with (or without) pants. Recorded on the grounds of Northern California’s Wiyot people, Lost Cause promises ambient-cum-experimental folk. And it is every bit as expressive as it is nourishing.
Laughlin has a fair bit of experience in writing and recording music, having released his first album around the same time most teens score their driver’s licenses. Not only do his talents extend into the engineering and production realms, but his multi-instrumentalism – particularly on this latest EP – outclasses many. Namely, the man plays electric and acoustic guitar, bass, mandolin, keyboard and drums. Deemed “adventurous tapestries of sound,” Lost Cause is presented as a reflective tool. Which is to say, it works less as a vessel of communal euphoria than it does as a solitary guide to the self. If that resonates as unsociable, one might also note that a half hour of introspection is hardly enough to spoil dinner plans. The opener, “Lost Cause, Pt I,” begins with dramatic keyboard stabs before evolving into the prog-heavy formula that dominates. Yet, these curious idiomatics are hardly ham-fisted. To the contrary, Laughlin maintains a playful vibe, opting for vibrancy in lieu of a showy arrogance that, for better or worse, has come to define the genre. The music, as he states, is “perfect for walking amidst the majestic Redwoods,” although given the ever-shifting signature changes, it might be best suited for people with erratic limps or troublesome muscular tics. Alas, we could be tripping over boulders, but we’re still at peace. Is this the kind of stuff that Rush would’ve honed in the 1970’s had they not made base in a Canadian metropolis? Or is it the music one creates while licking toadstools? It shouldn’t really matter, particularly if one accepts the complexity without harping on it. Sure, “Lost Cause Pt. II” is a more challenging piece, but the richer instrumentation never gets in its own way. Unobtrusive guitars avoid the self-serving lures of masturbatory noodling. By the time “Unbroken” is cued, the sound assumes a less druggy, pre-Dark Side of The Moon feel. It is, in a word, ethereal; a psychedelic-lite nugget in the vein of Pink Floyd’s “Fearless.” Even the electric guitar, run through what sounds like a fuzz box, plays nicely without over-elbowing for attention. “Lost Sacred Things” is the sweet but dreamy opus of the collection. Hooking the listener with repeated drum rolls, its playful resolve occasionally slows for lush bouts of pseudo-falsetto. This is all punctuated by guitar solos that bleed urgency, and a tender yet accessible melody that organically builds until, by the final quarter of the piece, it exists as a cohesive whole. With this final realization, everything falls into place: a deconstructed turn-of-awakening, a meld of beauty and interconnectedness, as Laughlin’s fingers tame the guitar and we, as listeners, presumably find our place. Wherever that may be. Just wear some sensible hiking boots if you’re listening in the woods.
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