Wilson Semiconductors

Four years after Earth Junk, the Howling Hex returned with Wilson Semiconductors, an exercise in cryptic simplicity: the band’s lineup is down to Neil Hagerty, who plays guitar, bass, and occasional keyboards over the course of just four songs. However, he can be just as challenging with everything seemingly out in the open as he is when burying everything in noise and non sequiturs. As on Earth Junk, Wilson Semiconductors is largely percussion-free, adding to the playful feel of Hagerty's staccato guitar and bass, which tap out clippity-cloppity rhythms that evoke Deerhoof as well as Les Paul and Mary Ford. “Reception” opens the album with its version of a pop song, as Hagerty stretches out witty refrains and wordplay like “Reception/It can take a long time...Regression/It won’t take a long time” for over six minutes without ever feeling like he’s padding things. The wonderfully named “Brunette Roulette” distills the album’s feel and approach by throwing simple motifs together in challenging ways: a warm, rippling Rhodes suggests ‘60s soul before meandering guitars of both the clean and distorted varieties overtake it, then Hagerty toys with distance and volume by putting the almost comically simple bassline in the sonic foreground as densely clustered guitars lurk behind it. He also toys with his listeners’ patience, teasing out movements until just before the breaking point on every track here. Hagerty blends the cerebral and the playful cleverly throughout the album, whether it’s the way “A Game of Dice” sounds too purposeful to be noodling but too winding to be truly focused, or the way that “Play This When You Feel Low” ends with a cha-cha flourish after reaffirming that Hagerty could very well be the missing link between the Rolling Stones and Fiery Furnaces. These jaunty experiments are some of Hagerty's most insular work in a while, but that doesn’t make Wilson Semiconductors any less enjoyable. ~ Heather Phares|