Upright bassist Nat Baldwin has his experimental bona fides in order. The first time I caught him live, he was playing a duet with Alex Mead on a DustBuster, and matched its on/off blasts with bowwork like a cat scratching through wicker. His bio also boasts the highlight of having studied with master composer and improviser Anthony Braxton, and if one of his homework assignments included a piece for four bassists playing in four separate galaxies-- well, I'm sure he aced it. Yet when Baldwin turned to writing and performing songs, first documented on his excellent, dire EP Lights Out, he held his improvisational chops in check to write solo, static pieces with keening vocals and dire words. His songbook has gotten catchier with time, and on his new release Most Valuable Player, he brings fierce performances to these polished compositions.
"Lake Erie" opens the record and introduces the three main voices: Baldwin's bass, played aggressively and seizing the lead; the 12-string electric guitar of Dirty Projectors' Dave Longstreth, which wriggles and squabbles throughout the record; and Baldwin's vocals. While his singing on Lights Out took a moaning, Andrew Bird-like timbre, he's pushed himself into a more vigorous and almost hiccuping style-- and while it's probably still a work in progress, his urgent cry fuels each song.
The double bass introduces most of the melodies, underpinning the more erratic addition of Longstreth's guitar. But aside from the two of them, Baldwin keeps the group lean: a bass clarinet accents the chorus on the lilting "One Two Three", and trumpet sputters along with the end of "De-attached" and gracefully accents his ballad "Enter the Light Out" (which you can also hear in an exquisitely tortured performance on his previous LP, Enter the Winter). Chris Taylor of Grizzly Bear plays flute mellifluously on "Black Square", and while some moments are too luminescent-- the chorus on "Mask I Wear" suffers an almost treacly treatment-- most of the record is effects-free and raw.
Baldwin has made his name as a bassist for Tigersaw and recently, the Dirty Projectors; Most Valuable Player was recorded around the same time and in the same living room as the stupendous Rise Above. His musical imagination is expansive, while his lack of pretense is admirable. He doesn't even make you flinch when you read that "Look She Said"'s lyrics come from the titles of Morton Feldman and Christian Wolff compositions; and in fact, the lyrics throughout the album are brief and strong. Reports from his latest tour say that the band takes wild free excursions off this material. But capturing his work on record, Baldwin hones his work to the starkest moments: an urge by the lake, a bloodstained footprint, a whistling bow in an empty room.
