Lucy Gooch - Rushing
Past Inside the Present/12-inch LP
In the Northern Hemisphere, much of us stare outside our windows — those parallel to the rising ground or those stretching like children into the clouds — and see a blanket of wet browns, muted grays, and blanketing whites. It’s a dull palette compared to the blossoms and bursts of Spring. It’s a time when the colors match the harshness of an environment keen to run humankind off its surface, using literal decay to remind us that we’re all servants to the whims of an atmosphere and planet unsure of our growing presence.
It’s these rough, patchy landscapes that echo Rushing, the first large-format release from Lucy Gooch. Sometimes it’s quite literal (the bouncing voices of Gooch whooshing through cavernous space on “ Stalagmites & Helictites”), but more often Rushing presents a figurative reflection of the North in wintertime. The mean-spirited winds, torrential precipitation, and static chill of an earthen cleanse.
But Gooch looks forward, through the blinding whiteness and bitter bister of a season whose purpose is to wash away all signs of growth by any means necessary. As “Sun” rises to meet the bleached landscape, the warmth of near-future, in the guise of Gooch’s breath-taken voice fighting through a sweeping, pitchy drone, shows us the one tree in our purview that is thriving in the coldness.
As we turn away from the high-definition screens that offer us a perverted view of life outside during this time, it’s comforting to affix our gaze outside to the reality of the situation. Rushing provides a steady reminder that the good fight is just a thaw away.
