Like small talk with a stranger or a slide into the DMs, there’s urgency and tension coursing through Midden, the upcoming collaborative effort of Deerhoof’s John Dieterich and North Carolinian free-improv guitarist Tashi Dorji. Recorded live at a church in Phoenix, Arizona, the LP captures the duo’s third meeting irl, yanking dissonant walls of sound from their guitars sans accompaniment or preparation.
Per Moone Records’ press release, Midden is “a document…in which two people engage in a natural dialog that at times is jagged and jarring while at others is mesmerizing and beautiful. Unpredictable yet completely organic, such a language is a joy to hear.”
In the excerpt from side B embedded below, Dorji and Dieterich share one of the more spaced-out moments of their sonic conversation, building from spacious pluckings to a primitivist freakout filled with skrongs, squeaks and strums. Glimmers of past works by John Fahey and Bill Frisell peek out from the mix, only to retreat into the track’s serpentine riffage.
Midden drops digitally and on 12-inch vinyl on September 3 via Moone Records and Gilgongo Records.
Midden tracklisting:
01. Side A
02. Side B
More about: Deerhoof, John Dieterich, Tashi Dorji
