Uzi & Ari
Ben Shepard is one of those artists that cannot help but create. Although on the road Uzi & Ari plays as a full complement of musicians in order to capture the complex and beautiful sounds that populate its recorded efforts, it is unambiguously the work of its originator, Shepard, who has an urgent muse.
There is something hiding under the bed in Uzi & Ari’s new record, ”Headworms.” Behind each syncopated rhythm and skittering string is the sense that something has been uprooted, that knotty boards have been plied apart and secrets exposed to the light. The album is a pregnant pause in a conversation with the gods, and never has introspection been such cause for dance. Uzi & Ari have always had their hands poised over the primal tom tom frenetic with energy, and in “Headworms” they’re beating it wildly. From the first anxious strums of the autoharp in Missoula to the final symphonic fade-out of Paper Cuts, the band has the listener monastically supplicating on our knees, wearing headphones and a heavy cassock, wringing his hands and tapping his feet. The language employed measures its step carefully with the music, and these two partners take turns leading, weaving in and out of powerful imagery both aural and verbal.
Uzi & Ari leave us a message in foggy window panes. It politely requests our attention, asking us to provide our own hot breath to make the message legible again. You may find that the writing changes with each new listen. It is careful and spontaneous, anguished and joyous, and allows the listener to happily fall apart. Whatever it is, “Headworms” is not background music, nor a soundtrack. The album interacts with the listener, and thus promises a timelessness achieved only by those bands that truly care about their craft.
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Headworms1 Missoula CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT! **visit Itunes** |
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It Is Freezing Out1 It Is Freezing Out
CURRENTLY OUT OF PRINT! L.P. coming soon, though. |
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Don’t Leave In Such A Hurry1 Past The Orchards On The Right |
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