Underwater Detection Method is a thing of firsts. While Greg Lisher is familiar to fans of made-in-California alternative rock thanks to his work with Camper Van Beethoven and Monks of Doom, the LP sees Lisher moving in a totally new direction. “While many fans know me strictly as a guitar player in an ‘alternative’ band, I purposely stepped outside my comfort zone making Underwater Detection Method,” he says. “I wanted to explore a completely different aspect of music that I love. This album might surprise a few people.” Coming after the guitar-based solo album Songs from the Imperial Garden, Underwater Detection Method sees Lisher for the first time writing songs using keyboards and exploring a new world of synthesized sounds. Always a lover of keyboards and synths, and of the more experimental excursions of favorite artists such as Brian Eno, Lisher took the plunge and made the decision to finally release a solo album that was anything but guitar-centric.
The resulting 12 songs make for an instrumental record shaded with elements of art rock, ambient, dub, and prog conjuring an inspired fusion that manages to split the difference between the melodic and the experimental. Some tracks seem born to accompany the emotional climax of an unforgettable movie, while others wouldn’t feel out of place on a volume of the KPM 1000 series. With this new self-produced album, Lisher approached songwriting with an open-minded disposition; he’d start songs by experimenting with sound collage which would take him to places he did not expect to go. “It’s like fishing,” he says, “I have no idea what I’m going to catch.” The album’s title reflects that analogy and reveals a most vibrant, creative eagerness. Thirty-nine years after Lisher joined Camper Van Beethoven, Underwater Detection Method shows that the artist is still discovering new things about himself and the music he makes and loves.
FCC Clean
Label: Independent Project Records
Goes For Adds 10/29
