“Sometime” swirls intoxicating guitar melodies with wafting vocals of: “You’re really necessary sometime, your birth is just the start of your death.” Fortunately, these words remain weightless enough to never pop the magic bubble that the music whisks one away inside of. Consider it ambient punk for dreamy escapism. The voice sounds of a young man singing loudly, but inside pools of reverb it feels more like haunting whispers. Perhaps because the vocals originated from an intimate space: “All the songs I wrote quietly in my bedroom then transferred to a loud, live environment, which explains something about vocals being pretty soft,” guitarist/vocalist Z. Cole Smith tells us. Before those bedroom sessions, Smith was playing guitar in Beach Fossils for two years. “Sometime” gladly welcomes the one-note interlocking guitar melodies beloved in Beach Fossils; notice that the two guitars and bass are all playing different lines.
Smith’s sonic impressionist watercolor collection, DIIV, can now be heard in high fidelity. Released last month, debut Oshin can be put on, let play, and thoroughly enjoyed. Each song sounds musically different, yet all songs are unified fluidly through similar textures, producing a quality single piece of music. “I listen to albums and I really wanted this record to be cohesive be listened to straight through, Smith explains. “I don’t like the idea of having a bunch of singles.” (Editor’s note: a DIIV single is featured on this year’s Summer Jams mixtape.)
Beyond easily spotted influences like C86 and Kraut-rock are stylings from the music of Africa. Malian guitar king Baba Salah has been citied as an inspiration, whose skipping rhythms and jittering guitar melodies give the music swift movement. Many have claimed all American rock music can be traced back to the blues. This does not flatter and is a possible example of closed minds. Our planet has many different types of roots music. Growing modern western music out of different seeds can open up rock or pop musicians and head them in new directions. DIIV is a perfect example, with Z. Cole Smith allegedly discovering Baba Salah at his local library’s compact disk section.