Macha front man Josh McKay has created a solo album that sounds like anything but a debut. McKay's creation is Seaworthy, and the album is The Ride - something stripped down and void of nearly all the eastern musical influences Macha is known for.
Released by Jet Set Records early this year, the aptly titled album takes you on a journey of subtleties and transformations. The music has no melodies - it ebbs and flows like the ocean it pays homage to. In the vein of Radiohead's Amnesiac, The Ride should be listened to on one of those days when you feel like looking into the wordless parts of yourself. Seaworthy is not dance-party music.
If you do decide to play it at a party - and yes, you should have this album in your collection - be sure you are ready for some interesting conversations. You and your guests will walk away with the glazed feeling of new awareness. Much like the album, while all things feel out of focus, you are more intensely aware of all the subtle layers creating the world around you. Best experienced from beginning to end, The Ride hints at a climax that may or may not ever come. The slow pace puts the listener into a trance and proves that maybe it isn't the climax that matters, but the journey there that makes the difference.
As you move through The Ride emotions emerge and decline thanks to the depth with which McKay has been able to construct this album. Deep bass lines and a dreamlike stream of lyrics on "i met her in the candy store" help to soften an otherwise harsh electric background. It juxtaposes a gentle love story with a horrendously evil, technological death. The fourth track, "lone star samba," is more optimistic, though not without some deeply cynical overtones. Again something is foreshadowed by the soft, plain vocals intermingling with a laughing conversation between friends.
A bell motif leads us through to "the day," a collaborative effort with Japanese singer Haco of the experimental band After Dinner. Her vocals are delivered on "the day" with tension and a hint of urgency. As emotions wander on a landscape abstract yet commonplace, diffused snare and intense bass lines develop a dark feeling in the music. The album takes on a more solemn attitude, almost indistinguishable as each song flows into the next.
This is largely thanks to Seaworthy's superior production and solid orchestration. For one, without McKay's musical experience, a solo project could be daunting, if achievable at all. But he does it well, and the result is an introverted intensity and vision. The songs on The Ride are anchored - as in "identifying the body" where a subtle and beautiful piano sample and progressive bass lines define the piece - yet dreamy. The title track expresses this overall feeling in more than 10 minutes in two parts that begin with ocean waves, calming the tension created in the track before it.
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Layers of male, female and electronic vocals hint at McKay's all but forgotten eastern musical influences and, at times, transform into sound rather than voice.
"The ride pt.2" puts a finger on the emotions we've been moving towards throughout the album with lyrics such as "Done away with tired words/ and for our trouble/ we will learn/ how a wave this mechanical/ could break us in two/ how a day this forgettable/ could tear me from you."
Fading out, we don't reach a conclusion so much as a mindset. To figure out that mindset, however, you'll just have to listen for yourself.
