Smoke Bellow - Open for Business (2021)

Thanks to visa issues, Smoke Bellow's Meredith McHugh and Christian Best spent a significant chunk of the 2010s oscillating between their homeland of Australia and their chosen home of Baltimore, Maryland. Though the duo settled in the city permanently in 2017, Open for Business is the first album since they made since returning to the States, and the sense of putting down roots extends from its title (a cheeky allusion to a motto coined by Maryland governor Larry Hogan) to its confident eclecticism. Establishing a home base allows McHugh and Best's music to wander further than ever before not that their music has ever been stagnant. Each time Smoke Bellow add a new element to their repertoire, it makes a profound difference on their music, whether it's the bubbling dub and highlife that punctuated Blooming/Middling's droning motorik or the asymmetrical rhythms that gave Isolation 3000 a loping momentum. On Open for Business, they continue to make percussion the focus with the help of new drummer Emmanuel Nicolaidis, whose expressive fills add mischief and mystery to songs like "Fee Fee" and "Fuck On." Over the course of the album, Smoke Bellow's sonic wandering calls to mind the likes of Sacred Paws' vibrant African pop-tinged style ("Hannan"), the clipped spoken-word surrealism of Dry Cleaning ("Night Light"), and Yo La Tengo's velvety ballads ("Maybe Something," which highlights the uncanny similarities between McHugh's voice and Georgia Hubley's). There's even a hint of Young Marble Giants' minimalist pop in "Wrong Size," which turns the phrase "you lack the reticence" into a surprisingly catchy hook. Though Smoke Bellow will almost certainly appeal to fans of the aforementioned artists, Open for Business underscores the band's originality. Not only are they handily in control of all these different aspects, their music is still more spacious than many of their contemporaries', particularly on the luminous "Anniversary" or "Take the Line for a Walk," which taps into the exploratory warmth of their early days. Their most complete and immediate album yet, with Open for Business, Smoke Bellow have truly arrived.