RITUAL / HABIT / CEREMONY by John Dwyer
Experimental music often leaves plenty of room for listener interpretation, which allows for a more intuitive approach to challenging questions. And for a deeply conceptual record like RITUAL / HABIT / CEREMONY by John Dwyer of Osees, the felt presence of direct experience is highly encouraged. This interdimensional jazztronica release deoccults the overlapping boundaries between these discrete spaces–the drama of Ritual, the repetition of Habit, and the spectacle of Ceremony–using largely improvised instrumentation, accompanied by bizarre and beautiful synth-scapes.
This seemingly-channeled release begins with “What Do”, a type of opening ceremony featuring YoshimiO’s glossolalic vocalizations, warped and distorted into the sonic fabric of dial-up tone electronica. Rhythmic hand percussion takes its place, bringing listeners into a more recognizable environment on “Ruth’s Mouth”, a habitual, delicately tracked baroque pop movement featuring woodwind and brass instrumentation. This song fades into “For Those Who Didn't Get Anything”, a meandering interlude, the ringing of ritual bells twinkling behind Gracie Jackson’s vibrating intonations. These themes continue throughout the rest of the record as Dwyer guides spaceship RITUAL / HABIT / CEREMONY into further-out fields of experimentation, culminating in the closing track “Check for Trap”, the main feature of which is a tenor saxophone pushed to its absolute limits of expression.
The interplay between synthetic elements, classical instruments like bassoon and viola, and trance-inducing drumming all warp the listener’s sense of time and space. Perhaps this reality-warping is what really ties Ritual, Habit, and Ceremony together. Each action undertaken, whether carefully planned in advance or improvised in the moment, has its impact on the world. I cannot speak exactly to Dwyer’s intentions, but RITUAL / HABIT / CEREMONY is sure to inspire new frontiers of musical expansion. - Kalen
