Evan Caminiti - Toxic City Music (2017) Hi-Res

If ubiquitous advertising and spending 40 or more hours at work every week inspire feelings of Sisyphean futility, it’s easy to understand why the big cities of the Western world (and perhaps America especially) have the potential to be gradually numbing. Residents and commuters are surrounded by imposing and ultimately meaningless displays of capitalism, and even though Evan Caminiti likely appreciates the urban life to some extent — calling San Francisco and New York City his home at separate points — his new solo album on his revived Dust Editions label deliberately meditates on the concrete venom that unknowingly infiltrates individual psyches. There’s a cost to living in densely-populated “urban jungles,” and despite one’s typical ability to choose from 13 different pizza joints within a given three-mile radius, the negatives are still worth acknowledging for the sake of an even-handed perspective.

Toxic City Music is out March 3, and with the exception of one, every track was derived from field recordings around NYC. The one exception, “Toxic Tape,” actually comes from a recording of Caminiti’s kitchen sink, which served, for its part, as a micro-commentary on urbanity and widespread industrial development. The Barn Owl member says via press release that his sink made him acutely aware of the ongoing Flint water crisis and the degrading quality of lead pipes in general in the US.

This drone-laden release was produced with help from similar craft-masters Jefre Cantu-Ledesma and Rafael Anton Irisarri.