“…as with a lot of the record there's an anxious edge to a lot of it, a jumbled tension. I Am John Titor is looking at the world through old glass - that slightly milky softness; a world of no straight lines.
There's such subtlety to the way texture is built up and deployed on the record. There's an artful looseness to it and so much of it is nicely understated and deliciously oblique in how it fades in and out, but there are still those few big surprising moments and gestures that are extremely satisfying … ”
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Steve Palmer is a young guitar player from Minneapolis, and Useful Histories is his second full-length release. The first, Unblinking Sun (a 2014 CD on the Dying for Bad Music label) stood out with its wide-ranging instrumental mixture of American Primitive picking and psychedelic rock influences. As its title hints, on Useful Histories those roots remain in spirit, reconfigured and developed due to time and circumstance; recorded over a two-year period as Palmer was required to adjust to a neurological condition that necessitated changes in his guitar technique, eventually catalyzing his larger musical approach in a more experimental and focused direction. The album divides roughly between extended “full-band” songs—alternately cruising down a straight-eight space highway into a full meltdown on the horizon, or avant-choogling their way into the air like some lost late-night ballroom jam—and layered guitar pieces that incorporate looping effects, fluid pensive picking, and the sound of pure electricity coursing through the power lines on a North Midwestern night.
Joining forces once again, Sunrise Ocean Bender records and Deep Water Acres are honored to present Palmer’s latest offering of cosmic American psychedelia—five immersive tracks spread across 37 minutes, with audio mastering by Eric Carbonara at Nada Sound Studio. Released on standard black vinyl and limited edition transparent violet vinyl, multi-format download included.