Minneapolis native Dosh (full name = Martin Dosh) is set to release
his third full-length, The Lost Take on the anticon label on Oct. 17.
The album features eleven guest musicians, most notably Andrew Bird,
Tapes ‘n Tapes guitarist Erik Appelwick and Mike Lewis from Fog and Happy Apple.
The Lost Take reimagines Dosh as the full band he’s always
wanted to be. It’s also the first Dosh album to include vocals. He has
taken his expertly arranged keyboard and drum loops, smashed them,
and spread them wide over his tracks. Instead of puzzle-piecing his
pre-recorded session bits into surprisingly organic soundscapes, Dosh
builds his miniature opuses out of live improv (his own drumming and
Rhodes playing) inspired by raw, written instrumentation (first Dosh’s
emotive keyboard/piano progressions; later guitar, saxophone, bass,
violin, clarinet and pedal steel from a hand-picked cast of Minneapolis
musicians).
“One Through Seven” begins the album with what sounds like
violin sampled from an old record moving slowly over a bubbling sea
of keyboard melody. Dosh improvises the drums on top, in and out of a
march, flouting time signature all the while but never derailing the
composition. Mike Lewis (Fog/Happy Apple) chases the rhythm with
his sax before the song unfolds. On “Everybody Cheer Up Song,” Dosh
tries out his voice for the first time on record, soft-spokenly wedging
himself into the corner of the bright song. Easy contender for
immediate favorite, “Um, Circles and Squares” exemplifies the strength
of The Lost Take. Dosh cuts loops from collaborator Andrew Bird’s
violin, then drops in a fast-paced bass-synth sequence doubled by
Rhodes. Jangly sounds catch the beat then cast it aside while the
violin stretches out underneath the churn. Lewis returns, adroitly
following the sequences at a fevered pace and augmenting the
rhythm. As technical as it may seem on paper, the song plays
gorgeously.
On “A Ghost’s Business,” Dosh cuts Andrew Bird’s violin into
jagged bits (a la The Books) and approaches his own instrumentation
with the same surgeon’s scalpel. Overtop, violin and clarinet weave a
common thread. The slight hammering thumps and junk-piling
percussion of “Ship Wreck” lends itself to the feel that something
important is being built; then the song comes alive to the shared
lowmixed duet of Dosh and his wife Erin (whose artwork physically
defines The Lost Take). Erik Appelwick of Tapes ’N Tapes
contributes distortion and texture to the subtle epic “Mpls Rock and
Roll” and two others, while Dosh’s drumming students announcing the
teetering pedal steel-tinged “Fireball” by happily shouting
“Fireball!” into the videogame-like atmosphere. Andrew Bird makes
several appearances, but always at the behest of our maestro: no
one element ever overpowers a track.
Throughout Dosh amazes with his ability to trick the human ear—
“Pink Floyd Cowboy Song” brings to mind Broken Social Scene’s
warmth and layered mastery but with four contributors total on this
track instead of, well, 40—but The Lost Take never sounds
pretentious or intangible. Instead, it’s the very natural sound of a
damn good band. A band named Martin Dosh.
Dosh will be touring this fall with Andrew Bird – dates TBA.
Dosh – The Lost Take track list:
1.One Through Seven
2.Everybody Cheer Up Song
3.Um, Circles and Squares
4.A Ghost’s Business
5.Ship Wreck
6.Mpls Rock and Roll
7.Fireball
8.Unemployed Blues
9.Pink Floyd Cowboy Song
10.O Mexico
11.Bottom of a Well
12.The Lost Take