Hear NYC Duo Georgia’s Cleansing New Age Experiment “Ama Yes Uzume”

The New York duo Georgia’s name makes it sound like they’re one person, but their new album for the Palto Flats label, All Kind Music, could easily pass for the work of a small ensemble—although perhaps “ensemble” is the wrong word for music this unbounded. Only the loosest sort of organizing principle governs their gentle percussive maelstroms, watery synths, and sample-based flotsam and jetsam. There’s enough going on at any given time that it’s easy to imagine a half-dozen players shuffling around the practice space, picking up and setting down instruments more or less at random—possibly even including the weed delivery guy, who somehow gets coaxed into keeping a steady shaker rhythm going while someone else scrapes together the cash for that eighth.

“Ama Yes Uzume” is the exception. It bubbles with an ease that brings to mind mountain springs, and its limpid synths could pass for a beaten-up new age record rescued from the dollar bin. That’s not to say that it’s simplistic, though. Bowed strings and digital bell tones hint at someone’s computer-aided idea of a Japanese temple; liquid piano riffing and a host of small, unidentifiable clanking sounds tip the balance toward free improv. Caroline Polachek, of Chairlift, does her best attempt to pass for an amiable jungle bird. The song rolls in waves; it feels almost cleansing, and when it has finished, its effects wear off like an evaporating mist.

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