(2022) Matthew J. Rolin - Passing  

Review:
Guitarist Matthew Rolin’s latest release and his second full-length this year, focuses on straightforward soli in the Takoma school style and the 12-string in particular. Passing demonstrates Rolin’s strengths as both a performer and composer with tunes that alternate fast and intricate fingerpicking with more gentle passages and are technically demanding but never showy. “Tracks,” for instance, builds steadily in speed and complexity in ways that seem both natural and unexpected, and the closing echoes the opening in a nice example of ring composition. The album runs for 32 minutes, and the tunes are similarly concise, with only two exceeding 5 minutes. The title track, split into four minute-long sections distributed throughout the set, is suggestive of Rolin’s more experimental work in the Powers/Rolin duo and on the dense Sea of Stars released in May, being thick with overtones, echo and occasional distortion. “Plaster” similarly makes use of studio effects in its second half. The rest of the tracks present the guitar unadorned though recorded so as to make the surrounding space palpable. “Shingles” resembles “Tracks” in its gradual build but ends in a different place, with a sense of anticipation suitable to its position as the first full-length track. Closer “Vent” also builds slowly to a cascade of chiming notes and then glides slowly to a halt. Of the six-string tunes, “Fourth Street” has a bouncy feel but departs somewhat from the steady thumb that drives many of the other tunes, featuring bursts of notes and clever hammer-ons and pull-offs. “Silence,” as the name suggests, is perhaps the most reserved track here, but it is nevertheless carefully constructed, with changes in tempo and neat occasional harmonics. In this and his preceding recordings, Rolin has firmly established himself among the post-Jack Rose generation of Takoma-school-style pickers. His solo work well complements his work with the duo (and sometimes trio), and he suggests here that he is prepared to carry the tradition forward. — dustedmagazine

Track List:
01 - Passing I
02 - Shingles
03 - Fourth Street
04 - Passing II
05 - Plaster
06 - Tracks
07 - Passing III
08 - Silence
09 - Passing IV
10 - Vent


Media Report:
Genre: alternative folk
Country: Athens, Ohio, USA
Format: FLAC
Format/Info: Free Lossless Audio Codec
Bit rate mode: Variable
Channel(s): 2 channels
Sampling rate: 44.1 KHz
Bit depth: 16 bits
Compression mode: Lossless
Writing library: libFLAC 1.2.1 (UTC 2007-09-17)


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