Variable Happiness

Description

Rosali Middleman, collaborator of Bill Nace, Graham Lambkin, and Samara Lubelski, channels a decade of experience into her debut album as Edsel Axle, wrapping bluesy riffs in meditative washes of ambience. RIYL Loren Connors, John Fahey, or Bill Orcutt. Recorded at home on a four-track cassette machine, ‘VariableHappiness’ has an undeniable domestic quality that’s difficult to ignore. It is well-crafted, lovingly made music that captures the immediacy of Middleman’s guitar playing and, thanks to her recording technique, never sounds overly complicated or overwrought. Middleman is an experienced guitarist, so her improvisations are not fiddly; they are direct and purposeful, built on blues foundations but often wandering down paths of their own making.