JULIA HOLTER - SOMETHING IN THE ROOM SHE MOVES

Released: 22/03/24

 Well it’s about time. For too long has the fretless bass been a punchline; much-maligned due to beard-strokers like Pino Palladino getting way too handsy with the fretboard – and so thank goodness for Julia Holter, who has reclaimed it from insufferable musos the world over and made it a centre-piece of her terrific new album, Something in the Room She Moves. Not since the theme tune to Northern Exposure have I heard such a deft use of the instrument.  

While the Angeleno avant-pop artist has often explored memory and dreams in her work, never has it sounded more elastic or chimerical than on Something … – instilling in the listener the thrilling feeling of never knowing in which direction a song will go. The fretless bass, of course, plays a crucial part in this, which, in counterpoint with gliding vocal melodies and glissing Yamaha CS-60 lines, entwines with warm winds and reeds, creating a sparkling, aqueous sound world – a sonic body of water on which Holter’s voice, drawing on somatic frequencies, moves like dappled sunlight.