1.15.19 by Ryan Masteller

I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes …

The latest lovefest from Sparkling Wide Pressure is an actual paean to actual love, like Frank Baugh’s been hanging out at the arrivals gate at Heathrow Airport around the holidays or something. More likely he’s been hanging out around the arrivals gate at Nashville International Airport, a 45-minute drive from my brother’s house in Murfreesboro, where Baugh also lives. Come to think of it, why on earth would he want to hang out at NIA? Totally pointless.

Metta meditation. That’s where it comes from, inner peace; also communion with family, friends, loved ones, the earth, the trees, the sky. “Love ov Love” doesn’t take the easy route of simply being a warm blanket, though; instead, it rummages around the corners of love and explores its intricacies, teasing out complex feelings. Utilizing a variety of acoustic and electronic instrumentation along with the human voice (for the most human of feelings), Sparkling Wide Pressure winds a bunch of disparate and fascinating elements together. At times dense and at others weightless, “Love ov Love” is a fascinating examination. There comes a time on the title track, which closes the album, when you realize that you CAN just let it wash over you, the acoustic guitar and the organ/synth/whatever tones. It’s a captivating moment.

It’s a Sparkling Wide Pressure moment. We should be used to those by now.

Pink translucent tape in an edition of 30 available from SWP himself. Maybe a Kimberly Dawn release (kimdawn062), but didn’t Frank shutter that label in 2016?