Album Review: Greg Lisher – Underwater Detection Method

In my line of work, I listen to a lot of music; if not all different kinds, then at least many different kinds. Increasingly, though, when I listen purely for pleasure, these days my first-call, go-to genres are hard bop, soul jazz, krautrock, Cuban jazz, and instrumental music in general. Against that backdrop, I’m luxuriating in Underwater Detection Method, the new album from Greg Lisher. Gurgling synths are wedded to analog textures. While much of the instrumentation is in fact electronic, there’s an unmistakably organic feel to this music. It’s anything but cold and robotic.

The song lengths are conventional by pop standards: two and a half to five minutes and out. The tracks are varied in mood and arrangement: some float by placidly, others are evocative of a particular set of moods (you decide what those are, of course). As as much as I enjoy dissonance and angular beats, these tunes have none of that. I am reluctant to use the word pleasant to describe Lisher’s compositions, because such a word implies a kind of damning with praise, a backhanded complement. And this music truly merits praise. It sounds like a soundtrack for whatever you might be doing that requires some but not all of your concentration: cooking, for example. But the album goes beyond aural ambiance, and as such it makes a nice active listening experience as well. Truly recommended, Underwater Detection Method is one of those albums I expect I’ll return to again and again.