GospelbeacH, with its debut Pacific Surf Line, should be highly commended for an album that braids folk and psychedelia in strands imaginative and new. Acting almost as modern study, in the archivist sense, of a California sound that absorbs and reflects both the sonic imagery of the open desert and tumbling surf as well as the pioneers of that territory, like New Riders of the Purple Sage and the Flying Burrito Brothers, it is a collection of songs that feel warmly familiar as often as it surprises. Guitarists Jason Soda and Neal Casal (Chris Robinson Brotherhood) exchange notes on electric and pedal steel against Brent Rademaker’s plaintive acoustic in narratives of sunshine highways and Monkey Town, U.S.A. Laid way back and peaceful on “California Steamer” or jumpy and free on “Mick Jones,” there is patience, and an appreciation for craft, existing within a loose, come-as-you-are structure that allows the quintet’s communal atmosphere to exhale with ease. In what may seem these days like an odd way to praise an album, Pacific Surf Line’s cover art is an ideal indicator of the expressions within, and tacit reminder of the role covers used to play. Take one look at the caricatured rendering of the five riding a train gone off the rails, with surfboards and seagulls, peace signs and prairie dogs, and see all that is needed to know about the wild and wooly trip GospelbeacH is taking.
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