Mike Polizze
Around Sound
Paradise of Bachelors
All’s quiet on the Purling Hiss front, and Birds of Maya are lying dormant. Free from other obligations, Mike Polizze, chief multi-instrumentalist mischief maker of the former, was able to drag out his acoustic guitar for a series of intricate fingerstyle workouts that chase homey melodies through the winding, rural pathways cutting through Around Sound.
Unlike the noisy, psychedelic squalls emitted by his more experimental projects, and even more reflective than its forerunner, 2020’s Long Lost Solace Find, Around Sound is gracefully spare and pastoral, even spiritual. It doesn’t have any answers, only questions, asked without expectation of a resolution or even debate. Instead, they feel as if they’re yearning for simple affirmation of their significance, longing for connection or, better yet, visitation, wondering who might be receiving his solitary transmissions and how far away they are.
Coming as the once restless Polizze, now a father, settles down, trading the city and its hustle and bustle for rustic tranquility and ease, these deep musings are supported on the resonant Around Sound by strong nets of exploratory guitar weavings. Always front and center, as Polizze plays everything here, the steely figures cross over and wave to each other like friendly passersby, while being tied into pretty sterling knots. Though tight, they unravel beautifully, as if Kevin Morby or Kurt Vile is telekinetically pulling at the strings.
Which seems to be the case with the lush centerpiece “Everybody I Know,” with its distant echoes of dizzy tremelo and soft “woo hoo” calls, evoking a sort of cowboy campfire mysticism, getting caught in a summery, sweeping downpour that brings with it a welcome cold front. “After the Deluge,” the tender opener, curls and tumbles gently, piano tinkling and tambourine shaking accompanying dreamy lyrics painting a lovely river scene. And there’s more “woo hoo” charm beckoning from the cheap seats, which only adds to the haunting kudzu framing the track.
Wistful, yet lighthearted, Around Sound could hardly be described as “withdrawn,” even if its bucolic intimacy feels both lived in and abandoned – except for Polizze, of course, who is there for the long haul. His vocals almost ghostly, Polizze seems close and remote, willingly seeking the attention of mesmerized rubberneckers but keeping them at arm’s length with the expansive, luxurious immersion of “You’ve Been Doing Fine,” the starry, atmospheric “Four Celestions,” and the drunken, seeing-double sway of “Fast Blues.” Folk and blues are obviously on the Around Sound menu, but it’s Polizze’s captivating soulfulness that nourishes, while the LP’s sense of brooding mystery gets under the skin.
