Andrew Bird’s drummer has been making beautiful instrumental music for Anticon Records for about six years now. His latest, Wolves and Wishes, has been one of my favorite albums released this year, and last night I had the pleasure of experiencing Martin Luther King Chavez Dosh’s impressive live show in Chicago. Jazzy, experimental, electronic, ambitious, magnificent. Dosh, not unlike Andrew Bird, is a showman. He wows his audience first, laying down a simple beat on his drum kit that loops throughout the remainder of the song. While this initial beat is looping, uncountable loops join it. From additional beats and piano melodies to saxaphone jams and bass riffs, Dosh constructs a massive jazz band all by himself.
It’s easy to compare him to Andrew Bird, what with the jaw-dropping musicianship combined with the mess of loops, but Dosh is in his own league. Percussion is the star of Dosh’s music, and, unlike Andrew Bird’s whimsical indie folk, this is music you can move around to. Even when the time signatures are counting above four, you have to tap your feet to this synthetic orchestra.
There are so many wires, knobs and buttons surrounding the man, it’s impossible to tell how he actually creates his music. That mystery is part of the fun though. Like any good artist, he surprises you. And even though this was his last show in the States for a while, Dosh is an artist that I strongly encourage everybody to check out in 2009. (unless you live in Tokyo. In that case, check him out this month!)
| Dylan Peterson is a recently married bicyclist from Chicago. He serves as Music Editor for RELEVANT. If you have a music tip for him, you can email him at [email protected]. |
