(((O))) : Teith – Humboldt Park

Expectation can lead a listener wrong more often than not. When a member of a band as well regarded as Pelican (Trevor Shelley de Brauw) is involved in a project expectations will undoubtedly be very high. Teith have managed to circumvent any unreasonable expectations in two ways. First by delivering the finest possible post-drone-kraut-noise-doom-psychedelic-ambient record they could and second by promptly breaking up. The latter is incredibly unfortunate because Humboldt Park is an immensely enjoyable record from beginning to end and it’s sub 40 minute length is not nearly enough.

While many of their contemporaries in the instrumental rock world languish in gloom and sadness Teith bring uplifting, positive riffs that border on (gasp) hooks. Opening track ‘Build Me a Tower and Give Me a Gun’ starts with some treated field recordings before the fuzzed out bass and delayed guitars build into an almost Sonic Youth-esqe groove. The second song ‘This Buffalo Wings Cafe is a Wi Fi Hotspot’ continues the trend and slowly picks up the pace as the guitar melodies mutate and transform into white noise.

The third song is the epic 9 minute ‘Table of Tourettes’. It starts of with some ambient noises and plodding bass line. The whole beginning of the song sounds like Geezer Butler being chased by UFOs through an old AM radio studio. Guitars are buried under tape loops of people cheering, jeering, screaming and even singing which all finally gives way to a cacophony of reverb and feedback before fading to a murmur. The melodic kraut-droning in the joyous ‘Don’t Obfuscate Me’ plods along merrily before giving way to the closing song ‘Friends of Italian Opera.’ The closing piece is a cannonade of droning noise competing with catchy melodies (most of which are played on a bass). About 7 minutes in there is a bass line that will be stuck in your head for days, consider yourself warned.

Probably the most endearing part of Humboldt Park is the sense of fun that permeates the whole record. It sounds fun to record, fun to play and it surely is fun to listen to. I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the bass guitar tone one more time, it is the glue that holds the whole record together and it sounds wonderful mixed in front of the more textural guitars. Teith has accomplished that rare blend of experimentalism and approachability that surely could have yielded many more albums, but that is no to be. This is headphone music for you commute on days when you’d rather not be commuting. It’s music to make you curl up with a book or take your dog for a walk to. Buy it. Love it. Hopefully we can collectively convince them to make another.