- The opening two tracks on Who Are You are as inviting as you'll hear on any album this year. "The Hostess," a delicate piece that comes off like an antique music box slowly rotating, melts into the title track, with its stuttering drum patter and laidback slide guitar. Eddie Ruscha's aim on Who Are You, his second album for Beats In Space after 2013's Tactile Galactics (as Secret Circuit), is to project a sense of wandering. This could just as well be a sense of wonder.
Ruscha works with a surprisingly large array of equipment to create music that feels like an intimate, homespun tape. As Secret Circuit, he was fairly prolific in the early and mid-'10s, self-releasing several full-lengths that skirted the fringes of psychedelic synth meanderings and zoned-out house. The 36-minute Who Are You drops the shaggier characteristics, but displays a mastery of tone and texture. The somnambulant stumble of "Gravity Waves," a highlight, carefully metes out dollops of warm bass and pillowy synths, affording every element due space.
The LP's initial tranquility gives way to a perkier second half, transitioning from sugar-dusted melodies to a fusion sound that feels more live. "All Of A Sudden" fills empty space with clean, overlapping guitar trails. On "Roots And Branches," the guitar notes are subtly bent, or simply ring out. Both give the impression of Ruscha laying on his back, gazing skyward as he noodles away. "Carried Away," the album's centrepiece, provides the most forceful release—relatively speaking—with keys and overdriven guitar that wouldn't sound out of place on an early Brian Eno album.
The evanescent mood of Who Are You can feel slight at times. "Lights Passing By" drifts along incidentally. It's the kind of track that might have worked well as a breather on an LP that wasn't full of them. You get the sense, though, that Ruscha has made the album for himself, the listener a welcome spectator as he jams in a low-lit bedroom.
Tracklist01. The Hostess
02. Who Are You
03. Gravity Waves
04. Lights Passing By
05. In The Woods
06. Carried Away
07. Roots And Branches
08. Endless Sunday
09. All Of A Sudden