The Weightless Sea is the fourth album from the duo of multiinstrumentalists Eric Hardiman (Rambutan, Sky Furrows, Century Plants) and Michael Kiefer (More Klementines). They continue their journey through the vastness of space (or in this case the depth of the ocean) with their guitar/bass/electronics/drum approach, , coupling solid rhythmic elements with more improvised sounding guitar and electronics makes for an amazingly fascinating record.
Twin Lakes/Feeding Tube/Cardinal Fuzz
Opener "Materialized" sets the stage perfectly with Kiefer’s metronomic, steady drumming and Hardiman taking double duty with an anchoring bass line that occasionally comes to the forefront and layers of fuzzy, overdriven guitar. The drumming is switched up throughout and while the song has a steady flow to it, never becoming too repetitive. The other shorter (meaning less than five minutes) song on here, "Sleepwalker," is the perfect counterpart. A relatively basic melody, albeit a memorable one, drives the song into what hints at the best of 1970s rock music without ever sounding too similar or trite.
The four longer pieces on the album expand and float rather than chug, however. The slower, layered "Interrupted Dream" features echoing, complex guitar and subtle, punctuating drums that are peppered with dubby echoes and other abstract bits of electronic sound. There is a similar sparseness on "I Am Here," which has the duo launching off from a more open mix, but one that they continue to flesh out as they go, increasing the density.
The two side-ending compositions take from the other songs and mix up the blueprint in an excellent way. The duo gets back to a nice chug, but slower this time, on "The Weightless Sea," while bringing in seagulls approximated by electronics and exceptional passages of psychedelic guitar soloing. On the other side, "Truths That Lie Within" leads with a droning, spacy opening and an unconventional drum sounds from Kiefer. Atop this, Hardiman adds tremolo laden guitars, oddly processed guitar leads, and the mix becomes more saturated and noisy than what preceded.
There are no drastic departures or changes to the Spiral Wave Nomads sound on The Weightless Sea; it is a further refinement of the sounds Hardiman and Kiefer have refined from their previous three albums. Emphasizing the guitar/bass/drums that have been a driving feature since the project’s inception but continuing the subtle inclusion of electronics that was notable on Magnetic Sky results in the strongest entry in the duo's discography to date.
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