Bilders - Dustbin of Empathy LP (Grapefruit / Sophomore Lounge, 2024)
The NZ-American *Bilders* brings *Matt Swanson (Lambchop,* *My Dad Is Dead*) and *Alex McManus (Vic Chesnutt, Lambchop)* into the fold, all with acclaimed albums in their saddlebags. Quality production and mature song themes reflect a lot of pure experience.
/*Dustbin of Empathy*/ opens with a voyage across Europe and down the generations, a tribute to the small people who survive massive events. One tune has an anti-war bias. Peace! Another is a trip of a kind — Angel (The Astronomer) is an eerie voyage into the “sinuses” of space. Most of the tunes were co-written, a couple were penned by Direen alone. High quality recordings, and the pedigree of the musicians, should make this unexpected album a pearl of 2024. It is hard to choose a stand-out track for campus stations — alluring “Lately Rain”, epic /Citizens of Nowhere/, the harder edge of Anvil Dark, lap-steel engraved Scaribus or already WFMU-blooded Custody of Love? Pure quality to take you from /Dustbin///right the way back to/Empathy/.