Baths

I know, right? What’s with us + single-syllable plural electronic bands from LA lately?

Baths is 24-year-old Will Wiesenfeld, a classically trained musician who began learning the piano at age 4. Though he’s since ditched the ivories for a largely electronic sound peppered with blipping, clicking, clacking real-world samples, Wiesenfeld’s training comes through in his complexly layered song-writing + the striking ability to develop what could easily be unexciting background atmospherics into compellingly beautiful music.

Though Wiesenfeld’s released varrying music under other names, Baths’ debut release was 2010’s Cerulean, an album that he recorded in two months in his bedroom + that earned him year-end “Best Of” recognition from the likes of Pitchfork and The Onion’s A.V. Club.

“The songs and lyrics all came out of a pretty fucked and arduous process of trial and error. But I hope people understand that I’m not the depressed, suicidal, and death-obsessed person the record may paint me as being. These are just darker areas that I wanted to explore.”

I for one thank Wiesenfeld for his dogged pursuit in the spirit of intrepid musical explorers before him—what we’ve heard of Obsidian to date tells us it has more than paid off.

Download + listen to the album opener, “Worsening” below + then stream the much more upbeat “Miasma Sky” to get a feel for the new one. You can pre-order Obsidian on CD or vinyl via Baths’ label, Anticon, or digitally via iTunes. Baths is on tour in North America now + will be hitting up New York’s Webster Hall on June 15th.