Steve Gunn – Way Out Weather (LP)

Way Out Weather angles for something far more cosmic, dynamic, and widescreen in sound and sentiment. In contrast to the interiority of Time Off, these eight decidedly exterior songs aren?t grounded by the specifics of geography, instead inhabiting headier, more rarefied altitudes (see in particular the ethereal ?Shadow Bros,? ?Fiction,? and ?Atmosphere.?) They step beyond home and hover above horizon, unmoored from immediate circumstances and surroundings. Here Gunn?s discursive, mantric guitar style, at once transcendent and methodical?and as influenced by Western guitarists such as Michael Chapman and Sonny Sharrock as by Ghanaian highlife, Gnawa, and Carnatic forms?maintains its signature helical intricacy and mesmeric propulsion, while buoyed by a bigger crew of musicians, a wider instrumental palette, and higher production values than ever before.