Cross Record forged their path along old-fashioned and modern lines at once. Their music's presence on Bandcamp, the stalwart American site that has become the new A&R for the country's best bands, got them their start, but the husband-and-wife duo of Emily Cross and Dan Duszynski didn't land their deal with Ba Da Bing Records until Cross sent a CD of their music with a note to label owner Ben Goldberg after meeting him at a Lady Lamb the Beekeeper show. Wabi-Sabi marks the first proper album Cross Record has created as Ba Da Bing artists, and indeed indicates a marked sense of sonic growth from the duo's early Bandcamp recordings, which boasted a desolate, folk-born sound akin to Smells Like-era Cat Power and Nina Nastasia à la Dogs.
Much ado has been made about where Cross and Duszynski recorded Wabi-Sabi, which is a Japanese term for the acceptance of imperfection. And yes, the relatively remote locale on the outskirts of Austin, Texas in the little town of Dripping Springs surely played a role in the Chicago-born group's desolate acoustic Cocteau-isms, particularly in the quieter moments of tracks like "Something Unseen Touches a Flower to My Forehead" and "Lemon." Additionally, the incorporation of a women's choir across a number of tracks adds another layer of airiness to this LP's sound.
But it's the presence of Swans drummer Thor Harris, who more than makes up for his absence on the latest Shearwater album, that helps Wabi-Sabi stand out from anything Cross Record has done in the past. The rhythms he achieves working with marimba, kalimba, and what's described only as "the mysterious black box" gives the group a heft that is absent on their earlier material. "Two Rings," for instance, may remind some of Tin Drum-era Japan, while the loping gothic stomp of "Wasp in a Jar" smacks of PJ Harvey's Dry. "High Rise," meanwhile, sees Duszynski himself channeling the power of Thor on the drums, counterbalancing his own Robin Guthrie-on-steroids guitar attack.
Yet, the partnership between the guitarist and Harris on percussion forges a solid foundation for Cross and her choir of singers: Julia Lucille, Liz Baker, Anna Milk, and Sarah Duncan. Within the album's most inspired moments, they hit atmospheric heights they've never reached before as a group. On "Basket," the dreamy vocal harmonies collide with Harris’ dense rhythms before collapsing under the weight of a divebombing wall of dirge from Duszynski’s strings, like FKA twigs produced by Michael Gira. It's an inspired fusion of wispy and visceral, a combination that doesn't seem like it should work as well as it does here. Throughout Wabi-Sabi, Cross Record thread their way between graceful and sinister, unfiltered beauty with heavier and uglier sounds, and tap into a dark well of energy that has potential to grow more powerful the further they explore it.
