#geotic

 “The Quarrel” opens with a mist of static and a percussive patter on the bottom end as the guitar thrums. There is an unexpected physicality in the squeak of fingers moving on the fretboard. The volume and tempo don’t seem to change even as Weisenfeld ups the vigor of his playing. Yet the effect is more serene than agitated. It’s a template for much of the album. Introspective, inviting, full of detail. The title track sounds like a conversation as the motifs mirror each other from octaves apart, the lower notes rounding out and pushing forward the higher. Yearning haunts “The Men-Shaped Fog” with its delicate guitar work shrouded in barely audible hiss above a bed of almost ceremonial keys. Elsewhere, Wiesenfeld experiments with more disconcerting textures and harsher sounds which are closer to his other recording project as Baths. The woozy distorted synths in “The Injury” make the song feel like a boat borne on rough swells. Album highlight, “The Lime of the Stars” reaches a glacial post-rock grandeur with layers of static, and electric guitar fuzz building into an obliterating wall of sound. Yet even buried within even the most placid surfaces one hears hints of distorted countermelodies, heavily deaccelerated miniatures which wouldn’t feel out of place on a MBV track and queasy drifts of sound that belie the notion of passive listening.

Geotic creates a restless meditation on the paradox of engagement. Even as society splinters it is impossible to withdrawal entirely no matter how tempting it may seem. With otherness threatened and identity weaponized, built families and communities provide refuge. The Anchorite seems to acknowledge serenity and turmoil will always coexist in a balance whose fragility may be ameliorated through recognition and acceptance.