FATWIRES — The Wicked Path (Album Review)
To buy or not to buy? That is the question.
One of the great pleasures in life is supporting artists directly, especially those who produce material outside the corporate studio model. Whether digital downloads, limited edition vinyl, or even CD-Rs lovingly burned at home, no matter how small or insignificant any individual contribution might seem, supporting artists directly sustains the creation of culture. Like the punk/metal adage says, you get the scene you support. In my case, I purchase music from independent musicians every chance I get because it is one way to feel like a bona fide benefactor in the digital streaming age.
I recently picked up The Wicked Path by FATWIRES (2020, Depth of Field Music) via Bandcamp, both as digital download and as a CD. The disc was supposed to arrive by Oct 16, 2023 but it never turned up, so I reached out to the group in early November to inquire. They got back to me a couple days later, apologized, and promptly dropped not one but two CDs in the mail. That kind of customer service response is another reason to support independent artists, who are infinitely more accessible than their corporate counterparts.
FATWIRES is John Eckhardt, a Hamburg-based bassist whose bio maintains that he is “testing the limits of being a bassist on planet earth in the 21st century, working towards a broader vision of what bass always was and can become in the future.” A self-described “hunter-gatherer navigating a wondrous, branching sonic forest,” Eckhardt dons the mantel of a dub cosmonaut, dabbling in fuzzed out, detuned bass nestled within deliciously echo-laden beatscapes. “Tools that we’ll be swinging,” the opener, evokes a vast, cavernous world where jungle beats, haunting harmonics, and a descending bass pulse wrap the listener in a lush aural vortex. Washes of white noise, vinyl static, and rain ballast beats frenetically chiseling digital chasms. Who are these workers, I wonder, what tools are they swinging, and to what end? Whatever the case, it all combines to give my system a proper workout.
I call Eckhardt a dub cosmonaut because FATWIRES is deeply indebted to Afro Caribbean phonics. Dub culture melds profound corporeal pleasures with deep spiritual satisfaction. The soundscapes on The Wicked Path reveal, and revel in, delicate and tender exhortations of black sonic tonality. As the Kiel-based emcee/breaker Cora E quipped in the mid-1990s, “the black wave from America came crashing down and washed us back ashore.” FATWIRES is Afro Euro kulcha, a permutation of black music that has been crafted across Europe for decades. Before Eckhardt, the producer Marius №1 wove breakbeats, harmonica, and brass together to craft the infectious beat Cora E rapped on in “Könnt Ihr Mich Hör’n” (1993). The connection is Hamburg, which, as a prominent city in the Hanseatic League, has been a swirl of global arrival and departure for centuries.
“Strings of Dread,” the second track on The Wicked Path, counters the tumultuous opener by drawing the tempo down to the slow grind of a patient yet persistent glacier. The pump, wait, and release of Eckhardt’s bass underpins gales of shimmering, shifting ambience dripping in echo, reverb, and delay. While trap hi-hat patterns coyly accentuate shuffling shakers, I imagine the ghost of a forlorn sailor coalescing in a damp alley in search of a fresh body to inhabit. As Paul Jordan notes, “Strings of Dread” is deep, dark and labyrinthine. Hot wobble, another Bandcamp supporter, chose “Boreal Riddim” as their favorite track. “Getting high on your own product” could easily be another. Rest assured there are many roses by still other names to stop and smell on your journey along The Wicked Path.
Consisting of nine pieces that clock in at just under an hour, John Eckhardt masterfully explores the sonic potentialities of bass, space, and time. He is by no means alone in his quest for, and extension of, Afro Euro kulcha, but Eckhardt does so with precision, joy, and gratitude. Concerning the latter, he names some of the inspirations in the liner notes who have been lighting the dub path for 50 years, a smart way to deflect allegations of cultural appropriation.
So far 115 people have supported FATWIRES directly, which is excellent and sad. While I take it as a good sign that listeners understand the importance of backing artists financially, it is sad that such a finely crafted album languishes under the radar. To be fair, FATWIRES released The Wicked Path just as we were settling into the second coronavirus lockdown. Like other records released at the time, The Wicked Path got shoved under the rug of contagious paranoia, which may have been more viral than the coronavirus itself.
Nevertheless, The Wicked Path is still out there, patiently waiting for your ears. You can preview it on Apple Music or Amazon, but why not do John Eckhardt a solid and purchase the album from his Bandcamp directly? Like an 18th century nobleman commissioning a composer to pen a piece for the delight of court revelers, you won’t be disappointed. While there, click through and check out Eckhardt’s other work. You just might find something else that triggers your fancy.
