by Patrick Pilch (@pratprilch)
This is Lorelei is the creative nucleus of the prolifically talented Nate Amos. Just about everything the New York-via-Chicago based musician touches turns to gold. From the prophetic atonal art punk of Opposites, to the collaborative carefree new wave of Water From Your Eyes, Amos’ artistry knows no bounds. This is Lorelei’s latest is a musical cage match with no holds barred. It’s the type of solo stuff where everything goes: recorded moments of unreserved intimacy, candid pieces unhindered by reservations or external forces. In short; it fucking rules.
The Mall, The Country and The Dirt, The Dancing are transcendent, alive, breathing. The double EP swells in ambient solemnity and contracts in melodic elegance, as pieces of coherent pop brilliance are encased between swirling panoramic experiments, highlighting Amos’ acute sense of sequencing and pacing. Take The Mall, The Country centerpiece “We Are Taking You Home” - the track is delicate yet pivotal, fixed between the daunting atmosphere of “Cell Study No. 1 (Pull)” and the wheezing brass of “The Country No. 2.” The tracklisting continues to thrive in juxtaposition, as staggering pieces of dissociation are cut with lurid moments like “We Are Running,” a track most succinctly described by a friend as “unreal.”
Amos’ arrangements are vivid and vast, unfurling like blue-green chasms of momentary fog, made chaotic by swamps of dilating string sections and pulsing electronic loops. Both EPs are divergent by nature and contemplative in their delivery, sweeping listeners into some haunted nostalgia while chugging along at a single-destination pace, unbothered by their own unpredictability. The ride is bittersweet and long, one where you realize things won’t quite be the same and you don’t know what that means, but no one does. We might be “off of the tracks, out of the gate,” but there’s a bridge up ahead and another after that and the sun is setting through the grease streaks on the window and for now, everything might just be alright.