Rosewood

Named after the deeply red-toned wood that marimba bars are made out of, Mike Dillons 2020 album Rosewood finds the vibraphonist further honing his genre-bending brand of percussion-based music. The album follows up his kinetic punk-, jazz-, and experimental rock-influenced 2018 album Bonobo Bonobo, which featured his large Mallet Men ensemble. With Rosewood, Dillon decided to work primarily as a soloist, only collaborating sparingly with fellow percussionist Earl Harvin and audio engineer Chad Meise. Consequently, while improvisation is still at the core of his sound, he took a more compositional approach, showcasing his deft arranging skills on a mix of original compositions and surprising covers. At the center of the album is his adept reworking of Nine Inch Nails Hurt, also made famous by Johnny Cash. Here, Dillon takes his main inspiration from Cashs version, perfectly translating the songs slow-burn intensity and dusky, rising tension onto his woody marimba. Elsewhere, he evokes the mysterious, cinematic quality of a spy thriller on Vibes at the End of the World and draws upon his love of vintage 50s and 60s exotica a la Martin Denny and Esquivel on tracks like Tiki Bird Whistle, Rhumba for Peregrine, and Earls Bolero. Its not just classic mood music and jazz that attract Dillon; he manages to push his percussion arrangements into a variety of surprising stylistic directions as well. On St. Claudes Drone, he frames Harvins Krautrock groove with a buzzy kaleidoscope of shimmering shoegaze tones and buzzy, jet-engine white noise. Similarly, on the Kraftwerk-esque Bonobo, he weaves in an 80s analog-sounding synth via a midi-percussion device known as the MalletKat. There are also two engaging Elliott Smith covers with the sweetly attenuated Talking to Mary and the dreamy, album-ending Cant Make a Sound, both of which evoke the poignant intimacy of the late singer/songwriter. Listening to the lush sounds at play on Rosewood, its easy to forget that every instrument you are hearing is a percussion instrument. Dillon has crafted a hypnotic album that pulls you deep inside a percussive, sylvan-toned dreamscape. ~ Matt Collar