Pairdown is a quiet, but constant presence in Pittsburgh’s musical landscape. For over 10 years, the duo of David Leicht and Raymond Morin have been dishing out harmonically rich and lyrically potent music, embracing intelligent and practical dissonance, all while sounding out of time. There is surely a huge debt being paid to British folk guitarists of the 60s and 70s — see the intricately-picked fingerstyle guitar patterns at the center of Pairdown’s sound — but with a new, expanded lineup featuring AppalAsia’s Sue Powers and Jeff Berman, the band is serving up some serious works of art.
Starting with 2009’s Holykyle and carrying through 2010’s Petrifidelity and 2012’s Aesthetic Guitar, the core duo has shown a greater comfort level with their increasingly difficult and advanced guitar writing. A new album, Reach to Ring will drop in April. Thumbed walking bass lines now share an easy space with guitar melodies and harmonies. The re-emergence of songs with vocals — Pairdown’s last few albums have favored instrumentals — is a welcomed return. In that sense, Pairdown revisits the vocal-heavy style of their debut, Holykyle, but this time out, the songs are gnarlier than ever.
The winding complexity of pre-album release singles, “70s Bert” and “The Salmon,” speak to a new interest in long-form songs and suite-like composition. On “70s Bert,” after Morin sort of raps through verses that reimagine Bert Jansch’s 1970s recording studio experiences, a patient grid-like vamp arises on top of which vocal harmonies swell amid syncopated full band hits and sweet pickup runs. The song then falls into a pseudo-jazz vamp, not unlike Pentangle’s flirtations with jazz.
[Note: Recital inherently embraces conflicts of interest, but I should mention that I engineered bass, vibes, and bowed gong and played a guitar solo for this record.]
With a strong group of songs written and the new expanded band rehearsed, Pairdown ventured into Audible Images Recording Studios to work with engineer Jay Dudt. Below are a slew of photos from one of the initial sessions.
If you want to catch the band live and pick up a record, Pairdown will release Reach To Ring on April 18 at Club Cafe.
