Matt Bauer
Wasps and White Roses
[ mattbauermusic ] 2006

"Carve It Out," the opening track from Wasps and White Roses, is one of the prettiest songs you're likely to hear in 2006. Featuring vocals by Jolie Holland, the song is a study in simplicity--sparse and haunting, as is most of this EP. Do not be fooled by this starkness, however, as the imagery conjured up by Matt Bauer over the course of these seven songs is deceptively and quietly dark as a deep, deep well: "My head feels like a buffalo/My heart's a nail sticking from a board/I'll find a hammer to pound it down/I'll find a knife to carve it out."

There are few adornments to be found in these gently skeletal arrangements, held together by deliberate (and sometimes delicate) guitar, banjo, piano and fiddle. Bauer's voice is the true gem here--almost raspy, it sounds as if he's lived a thousand lives and walked down a thousand roads yet still survived to tell the tale, as it's world weary, well-worn, comfortable and chilling all at the same time. Anchored by two short instrumentals, Wasps and White Roses could easily be a series of vivid snapshots from times gone past--both the quietly insistent "Sea Lion Woman" and "Heap of Little Horses" are traditionals, given additional lyrics and new life by Bauer.

Totalling less than twenty minutes, my only wish is that the EP was slightly longer; it casts such a spell in such a short amount of time, and leaves the listener wanting more, especially after the beautiful "Poor Robin," with its fiddle-laden melody and warm vocals--"This blue light is quiet/And calms my heart/Clouds crawl beneath us/Above us only stars."

s. :: [July 2006]