Kelp Dwellers - 2021 - Surfacing
(41:37; Kelp Dwellers)
Over the last few years, I have been in contact quite a bit with multi-instrumentalist Gayle Ellett, one of the founders of Djam Karet, a band I first came across more than three decades ago. Last year he sent me three albums he had recorded with Todd Montgomery as Fernwood, which I thoroughly enjoyed. Todd then asked me if I would be interested in hearing the debut Kelp Dwellers album which he and Gayle had recorded with drummer Craig Kahn, to which I of course agreed, and I am currently playing.
Each song was recorded by the trio playing live in the studio (Craig drums, Todd electric tenor guitar and Gayle bass), and then Todd overdubbed electric mandocello, lap steel, electric guitar, keys, synths, and Gayle added 6 and 12 string electric guitar, piano. The idea was to have that live band feel, with people bouncing off each other even though the songs were arranged and not improvised and have that sense of fun which come with playing music with mates as opposed to in a solitary existence in the studio. Montgomery said, “it’s fun and rewarding to be creating music with friends in the context of a rock band again, after decades of playing acoustic world instruments.”
Of course, there is never going to be something simple about the end result, especially when the references are progressive, surf and psychedelic rock, yet this is somehow indeed simplistic with a sound that comes to us from the late Sixties/early Seventies with a Californian feel. The songs are instrumental, but they really do feel like songs, just without vocals. There are twangy guitars, which at times could almost be a cliché, especially when there is a lap steel as well, but somehow it all works very well indeed. All those involved have toned back their flourishes, so it never feels like an album of complexity which requires serious concentrating to understand, but instead is something which really does evoke the feeling of being on a beach somewhere.
I was lucky enough to be raised next to the sea, and used to speak to it every day, and while our beaches were stone and not sand, I can certainly imagine blasting this out on a holiday in the Pacific, sipping cocktails, as it evokes those feelings. This album was released all the way back in 2021, but Todd has told me there is a new release in progress with 20 songs currently being worked on, and I can only hope we get the results of those labours sooner rather than later as this is a delight.
Kev Rowland, May 2025
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