Monday, Feb. 21, 2011
Mathew Haeffel
Rhythm Ethics (Genre Good)
Following his 2008 Toaster Fires disc with Rhythm
Ethics, Milwaukee's Mathew Haeffel continues in semi-improvisational,
groove-intensive folk rock. Seemingly influenced by the catalog of the Dave
Matthews Band, Haeffel adapts that stadium-filling act's eccentricities in
melody and arrangement for a smaller, more intimate approach. In the tradition
of Matthews and others who have derived their jam-band aesthetic at
least as much from Phish as the Grateful Dead, lyrics tend
toward desperation and angst rather than joy. But couplets often seem
secondary to Haeffel's acoustic guitar picking and riffing interplay with
his drummer, organist and, especially, bassist. A handsome bloke with a
cheery smile that belies the morose, occasionally navel-gazing nature of
his songwriting, Haeffel is an able ambassador for a sound that takes
the organic essence of hippie ambience (think Richie Havens) into the
current century.



Comments