Lightness, the debut EP from Minneapolis-born songwriter Dex Wolfe, is quite literally a product of our times. After working on his debut album for the past three years, Wolfe found himself stunned by the unfolding chaos of the contemporary moment, and reacted by focusing on new songs that might somehow address his position within it. His debut release is therefore not strictly his debut work, but the first glimpse we get of a singular style which encompasses folk, jazz and post rock sensibilities.
The idiosyncratic sound works in harmony with the themes of the EP. The release draws its name from what Wolfe sees as the oscillation between positive and negative baked into the human experience, and how our current shadowed state still displays evidence of the other side. What he describes as the “process of being in a dark part of the cycle, but being rebirthed in light like we are every day.” With help from Pat Keen (bass) and Jack Lussenden (drums), this sentiment is brought life through curiosity and strangeness, a constant propensity for the unexpected, for change, that both captures the pessimism of the moment and the brightness beyond its boundaries.
Lead single and opener ‘Lightning’ makes this apparent, an inventive track that blends a surreal floaty ambience with a frenetic lyrical flow. “I wrote [the song] while sitting on a bridge in Eau Claire, Wisconsin,” Wolfe explains. “I was awestruck by a massive golden lightning storm that intricately painted the entire horizon in the distance.” But despite this sublime natural display, many pedestrians on the bridge barely looked up from their phones. “The juxtaposition of these two events felt so acute,” Wolfe continues, “as if being offered up as an archetype of western civilization in the 21st century.”
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There’s more of a traditional folk rock vibe to ‘Little Car’, though the apparent simplicity of opening rhythm branches out with a searching intricacy, while ‘Highly Likely’ positions itself in an altogether more intangible space. Exploring the ambiguous territory between escapism and destruction, in particular in a context of addiction, Wolfe’s vocals arrive soft and fragile above the art pop discordance. However, they eventually pulled into the glitching confusion of the sound itself with the searching refrain—Why can’t we be alright?—ending the track with no judgement or wisdom.
‘Love Breaks’ emerges from the chaos with a meandering calm, a laid-back lounge jazz made almost surreal by its positioning. The escape itself perhaps, cut off from the noise and movement of the world but always temporary. Indeed, the EP can function as a loop itself, the peace of the closing track feeding back into the manic twitch of the opener, the wax and wane of life we have to live.
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Lightness is out now and available from the Dex Wolfe Bandcamp page.
Artwork and photography by Leeya Rose Jackson