![]() Each repetition of a song reveals a guitar line from Dugan that elevates a vocal melody that only 15 years of experience together can achieve. The level of interplay between Matisyahu and his band mates on Undercurrent is unquestionable and requires multiple listens. Matisyahu the singer is patiently waiting for the band to direct the journey, and he joins back in with a near whisper as the rhythm section finds that incomparable dub groove Brooks and Tomino are famous for. The musical conversation continues to build, each band member adding to the improvisation without playing on top of one another. The listener can almost intuit the personalities of each musician. Guitar and keyboards calling back and forth to each other. Each player speaking briefly but with purpose, adding slowly and deliberately to the conversation. From there the entire band begins to improvise. The track however continues for another six-and-half-minutes, beginning with a beautifully re-harmonized keyboard reference to the song’s opening wordless vocal melody. A stunning example of this is on the record’s fifth track “Tell Me.” If you stop the song at the three-and-a-half-minute mark, you have a great reggae-tinged pop tune that promises to make a hit radio single. These forces direct the journey of Undercurrent, and as the record progresses the music begins to open up into full band improvisations like a relationship becoming more trusting, willing to take chances, knowing there’s acceptance in the process. He projects it outwardly through questioning in “Forest of Faith,” And finally works towards acceptance on the guitar-driven gem “Headright. Matisyahu sets the stage for this conceptually on the record’s opening track, but he digs in internally on the authoritative plea in the chorus of “Back to the Old,”. Faith, the constant, and trust the immediate. It’s a lyrical reframing of the Jewish philosophical differences between emunah (faith) and bitachon (trust). Acceptance in the actions of one’s younger self and acceptance that while the future may be uncertain, having the courage to trust gives us all the best chance at meaningful relationships. The vulnerability in the lyrics comes from acceptance. On the opening track, “Step Out into the Light” the band lays out a repetitive minimalist verse section that anchors the listener in a near meditative loop only to open up into a gorgeous set of chord changes that makes the chorus feel revelatory, as if the listener has earned this release, and can achieve the song-title’s call to action.īy the record’s third track, “Coming Up Empty” the band has established melodic themes that will be called upon or re-harmonized later in the record, and just two songs in, it is clear that these musicians are road-tested, brave-song-crafters, with tens-of-thousands of hours of playing together embedded in their muscles and fortified in their bones. There are no post-production bells and whistles or litany of special guests on Undercurrent. The courage in the music comes from trust. The record is musically Matisyahu’s most courageous release to date and lyrically his most vulnerable. The result is Undercurrent, Matisyahu’s sixth studio album. ![]() Only once the band had crafted this musical narrative, did Matisyahu begin to work on a lyrical narrative of his own - a lyrical narrative that is simultaneously informed and integrated with the music yet driven by Matisyahu’s own personal journey. Out of the improvisations grew melodic themes, rhythmic peaks and valleys, blissful and proto-song guitar passages, deep dub meditations and ultimately an inspired instrumental record until itself. The band improvised for hours in the studio with Matisyahu watching on as an admirer without singing a single lyric. The band features longtime guitarist Aaron Dugan, Dub Trio bassist and drummer Stu Brooks and Joe Tomino, and keyboard virtuoso BigYuki - and the journey starts with them. Now nearly thirteen years after the release of his first studio record, Matisyahu and his band have done something unmatched in his past repertoire they have crafted that journey into a musically thematic eight song movement. The journey has at times been explicitly external, even while being driven by internal change. Singer-songwriter Matisyahu has been on journey inward for more than a decade.
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