As a musician, it isn’t always easy to capture that moment in an improvisational situation where the pieces all click together to become something other. That mercurial sound of the players’ subconscious unfolding in real time. The Spiral Wave Nomads manage to pull it off against the odds with their self-titled debut.
Those aforementioned nomads are a duo comprised of Eric Hardiman and Michael Kiefer. Both of whom have put in some serious time in the sub-underground trenches. For the Albany based Hardiman, his resume includes being a member of the psychedelic rock collective Burnt Hills, and his one man ambient/noise project Rambutan; all while curating limited run avant-garde damage on his Tape Drift Records imprint. Kiefer’s prior work includes time with exploratory outfits such as More Klementines, Rivener & the neo-Americana of No Line North. He also runs the Twin Lakes label. This album is a co-release between Twin Lakes, and the seemingly inexhaustible underground wellspring that currently is Feeding Tube Records.
It’s pretty remarkable how full these tracks sound for being credited to a duo, and how much musical ground is covered by Hardiman and Kiefer on these takes. From the swirling Crazy Horse influenced stomp of “Blue Dream,” replete with Hardiman’s searching guitar leads to the technicolor buzzing eastern drones of “Wabi Sabi.” While “Floating on a Distant Haze” is content to drift on a sea of serene kosmiche musik waves.
Spiral Wave Nomads is an album electrically charged by the sound of two artists hunkering down for the simple joy of seeing what might happen in the moment, and the results are stunning. Ride the darker wave.
Buy the album from Feeding Tube Records.
The 13th Track 