For all his musical unpredictability lately, Malkmus certainly sounds like he knows what he’s doing on the folksy Traditional Techniques.
In 2018, Stephen Malkmus released Sparkle Hard with his band the Jicks. It was a fairly unsurprising release, given that it was the fourth Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks album in a decade, and contained the alt rock fare theyd had honed since the start of the millennium. Then last year, Malkmus released Groove Denied, which was less expected. It was the first album under his own name since 2005’s Face the Truth, his first true solo album without the Jicks involved at all, and musically, was heavily electronic-based. This month, Malkmus gave us Traditional Techniques, another solo album that’s…folk music?
What is this guy doing?
According to an interview with Rolling Stone, Malkmus isn’t so sure himself. He’d wanted to Sparkle Hard with the Jicks for a while, and said “the electronic one was always going to happen” about Groove Denied. Traditional Techniques is described as the story of wanting to do something with a 12-string acoustic guitar he bought and tried to return, and receiving words of encouragement from the Decemberists’ guitarist/producer Chris Funk. In his words, “the folk record is the wild card.”
However, for all his unpredictability, Malkmus certainly sounds like he knows what he’s doing on Traditional Techniques.
Despite the title, the album is really only half traditional, at least in the western tradition. Its influences are all over the place, both musically and geographically. A quick glance at the instruments played by the touring lineup starts with your typical rock lineup, before listing the rabab (an Afghan stringed instrument), a kaval (a Balkan flute), udu and daf (Nigerian and Persian drums, respectively). However, Malkmus isn’t trying to be like the ever-worldly Beirut here. The meandering opener “ACC Kirtan” (kirtan being the Sanskrit word for a type of spiritual recitation performance) has the mystical tones of a meditation circle (or maybe a hippie store), contrasted by lyrics about a retro dinner party. Embracing a similar divide, “Shadowbanned” has the Indian-inspired psychedelic feel of a George Harrison song, but it’s hard to imagine that Beatle singing of a tech dystopia and namedropping Amazon, Reddit, and TED Talks. It also has the same sitar effect heard on Malkmus’ standout track “Come Get Me” off Groove Denied, with a much less conventional rock sound. On the opposite end, “What Kind of Person” brings the kaval flute to the fore, while Malkmus sings heartfelt lyrics of love over plucked guitar and rabab notes. These tracks all sound pretty good, and show off an entirely new side of Malkmus, which is saying something given his three-decade rock career.
The remainder of Traditional Techniques is a little more homegrown. Malkmus has always had a penchant for Americana, as he pined for “a range life” with Pavement in the 90s, but this album brings in the distinctively country pedal steel guitar on a few tracks. You hear it most clearly on “The Greatest Own in Legal History,” where Malkmus sings in the role of a well-intentioned but egotistical defense attorney. Bringing things down south, “Xtian Man” has a swamp rock flare a’ la CCR to it, although Malkmus himself compared it to the decidedly more urban Velvet Underground. Between Malkmus’ signature lyrical snark and his take on traditionally American sounds, both tracks stand out on the album.
The only downside of Malkmus showing off his newfound appreciation for both international and domestic folk on Traditional Techniques is that the bread-and-butter acoustic guitar folk tracks don’t have as much appeal. Part of this is novelty – it’s hard for a guitar, even a 12-string, to hold a candle to something like a kaval flute, which I didn’t know existed until writing this review. The other part is that you don’t have to look too hard to find in Malkmus’ discography to find similar songs. Even the lead single for Sparkle Hard “Middle America” was a Wilco-ish folk rocker. Now, tracks like “Cash Up” and “Brainwashed” are fine, but you’ll be glad the album is front loaded with more attention-getting numbers. Of these folk tunes, the closing track “Amberjack” is the one you won’t want to miss, largely thanks to Malkmus’ unexpectedly shaky yet powerful vocal performance.
The idea of pivoting from an electronic album to a folk one isn’t all that original in indie music. Think of the Magnetic Fields’ Distortion and Realism and Bright Eyes’ Digital Ash in a Digital Urn and I’m Wide Awake, It’s Morning. However, both Groove Denied and Traditional Techniques are full of totally new sounds for a singer-songwriter who we’ve been hearing since the early 90s. Of the two, Traditional Techniques seems tighter and better composed; Groove Denied occasionally had a “what does this button do?” feel to it. Malkmus may have a few hundred songs under his belt by now, but Traditional Techniques shows he’s a long way from running out of ideas or steam.
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