Hazy meditation blues. This is just one of many albums Matt Christensen (Zelienople) has released on Bandcamp in 2017, his recent music defined by aleatory recording sessions with a wide and rotating cast of players. Here he’s leading a three piece (Kim Gravers on second guitar, Ben Corsoca on drums), and the result leans more heavily toward straight-up rock ’n’ roll than just about anything I’ve heard from him, though it’s filtered through his desolate, dreamy, understated sensibility. The band builds on simple riffs, creating a space for concentration within a circle of dense fog. I love the haunted spontaneity of his work; I can imagine an alternate universe where the Anthology of American Folk Music, among its potent and cryptic odes to the chaos of the world, has songs like these. Favorites: 1, 2, 4. FCC WARNING: 3.

1. *(4:56)—Slithering, vaguely post-punk riff. Minimal, distant drumming. A little faster and I could hear it being a hit for 4AD in the 80s.
2. *(7:52)—Mid-tempo, at least partly political desert rock. Impromptu ebbs and flows in intensity.
3. (10:40)—FCC (many “f***”s). Slow, drifting, loose. Rad wall of noise guitar.
4. *(4:16)—A very slow, blurry country-western ballad, sliding toward the edge of ambient-drone.
5. (9:36)—Slow, tense, locked-in groove. Ripping Crazy Horse guitar solos.