Rosine: L
(Rag & Bone Shop Records)Composer and multi-instrumentalist Mark Lerner's new album under the band name Rosine kicks off with "Walter," at first featuring the Kingston-based musician's jittery guitar finger-picking, putting it in the realm of new acoustic music. Then Carrie Bradley's Eastern European-drenched violin comes soaring in, lending the tune the flavor of Minimalist avant-chamber music, before the former member of the Breeders goes full-fledged klezmer atop rock 'n' roll drums. The rock beat then enters with electric bass as it subtly morphs into dub-reggae before a mysterious, angry-sounding vocal sample emerges, carrying the listener to the end. If this sounds like a wild, genre-hopping psychedelic trip, it is; but in the hands of Lerner—the longtime bassist of Poughkeepise-based Life in a Blender—it all goes by with perfect logic and beauty, setting the tone for the next dozen tunes on this stellar effort by a dazzling visionary. Ragandboneshop.com.
