MUSIC: Wiggly Air, by Kurt Gottschalk

Ghosts in the guitar. The wonderfully inventive Jules Reidy has been going through a period of transition of late. Affairs of the heart, a change in gender identity and a renewed interest in mysticism have all, it seems, led to Ghost/Spirit (CD, LP, download out Feb. 21 from Thrill Jockey). While they’re often heard in more experimental and freeform settings, the Australian-born, Berlin-based sound sculptor is also a songwriter, and the new album is a 14-track meditation on rebirth and finding peace. The songs were written almost certainly as a form of self-help, and may well provide solace to others, but it’s Reidy’s music that makes Ghost/Spirit such an exceptional album. The wistful songs are placed atop unapologetically abstract settings that float asynchronously with occasional, abrupt beats, bringing some of Björk’s best work to mind. Reidy builds the songs from multiple guitar tracks, often looped and processed, and folds in ambient sounds. Recordings of Berlin’s regional train system wash through the mix, and samples of cello, bass, trombone and drum lines softly augment individual tracks. It all feels a bit off-kilter, uncentered, and beautifully so. The arrangements are unusual mixes of fragility and assuredness, like holding out hope in the face of uncertainty.

Another sifting of strange beauty comes from the metal-adjacent Chicago duo Wrekmeister Harmonies. The band has gone through numerous permutations over more that 15 years of operations, and on Flowers in the Spring (LP, download out Feb. 21, also from Thrill Jockey), they’re stripped down to the drum-free duo of JR Robinson and Esther Shaw. The four instrumental tracks, adding up to a 52-minute playtime, are couched in drones and slow, looping guitar figures that seem to stretch on forever. Obvious parallels could be drawn in the orbit of Sunn O))) and other deeply downtempo electric drone acts, but Flowers is an unexpectedly pretty record. Electronic melodies shimmer in the mist of distorted guitar figures. It’s a dark record, but perhaps closer to dawn than midnight.

Thunder and other rumbles. Landing a bit closer to rock in its igneousest form is Karla Kvlt, a familial triad out of Hamburg. The patriarch of the outfit is guitarist Markus E. Lipka, part of the 35-years-running death metal band Eisenvater. His Kvltmates might be younger than his primary musical project; his son Johann Wientjes plays drums and daughter-in-law Teresa Matilda Curtens is heard on bass and vocals. Easily outpacing the Wrekmeisters, the Kvlt’s Thunderhunter (coming Feb. 21 from Exile on Mainstream as download or bundled CD and LP) is solidly mid-tempo, heavy but catchy grinds. The seven tunes pound with a singular power, offset by Curtens’s unaffected voice rippling in the wind.

All we need is a drummer for people who only need a beat. The British duo Rattle find complexity by keeping things simple. Katharine Eira Brown and Theresa Wrigley both plays drums and sing, and don’t clutter up their infectious songs with any other needless instruments. The drum parts are taut and tidy, the vocals complementary and melodious. “All Burning,” the first of four tracks on Encircle (CD, LP, download Feb. 28 from Upset the Rhythm) is built around variations on a vague but urgent chant: “doctor, doctor, doctor, doctor, hold your own, hold your own, hold your own, hold your own,” replacing “doctor” with “daughter” and “horses” as the song progresses. It doesn’t quite seem urgent but it’s something, somehow, very important. Most of the time, however, they sing without lyrics, plaintive tones projected against rhythmic progressions. At the same time, tightly tuned and well recorded drums bring out the musical resonance of cymbals and skins. Encircle ain’t no drum majorette record. While it’s essentially acoustic (the fairly prominent reverb was likely added in the mix), it’s reminiscent of OOIOO, the long-running, tribal trance, largely electronic side project of Boredoms drummer Yoshimi. Forty minutes of drum duets might sound like a headache in the making, but Rattle is a surprisingly smooth endeavor.

Wax and heartstrings. Oakland’s Shannon & the Clams recently announced a deluxe, digital reissue of last year’s The Moon Is in the Wrong Place (due Feb. 28 from Easy Eye Sound). The reissue will include four songs released last year as singles and one new song, which can already be found online and is worth the easy effort. “Wax & String” was inspired by the 1969 Shocking Blue hit “Venus” but more than that by personal tragedy. Following the tragic death of Shannon Shaw’s fiancé Joe Haener (also a fixture in the Bay Area indie scene) in a car accident in 2022, Clams guitarist Cody Blanchard was tasked taking care of plants and household duties until Shaw could face returning to their home. Blanchard wrote “Wax & String” about the experience of going through Haener’s possessions and thinking about the loss felt by Shaw. That said, it’s an upbeat and fuzzed-out raver, and Blanchard turns some poetic lines: “Just hide your love inside a thing / You’ll see it’s all just wax and string.” Seems like a good reminder to focus the important things, and tell the important people that they are.