Julian Lynch

Ya Reach / Underwater Peoples

Wisconsin-based artist and producer Julian Lynch began releasing solo music in 2009, and has since recorded five LPs along with an array of EPs, cassettes, and film scores. Julian balances his output of solo material with his pursuit of a joint PhD in anthropology and ethnomusicology, and more recently his role as guitarist in the band Real Estate since 2016. Rat’s Spit, Julian’s latest full length, arrives on January 18th, 2019.

Julian Lynch returns to solo music-making with Rat’s Spit: a dark psychedelic opus born of five years’ labor towards exploring new sonic directions and giving thoughtful expression to a global moment of anxiety and uncertainty. Lynch’s newest LP offers the artist-producer’s most expansive and bold work to date, refining his distinctive approach to textural sound-crafting while maturing within a world staggeringly transformed since his 2013 release Lines.

The nine tracks on Rat’s Spit teem with timbral detail in building a lush sonic environment. Lynch thrives in coupling a nuanced and idiosyncratic style of pop arrangement with atmospheric production that builds upon layers of ethereal and otherworldly sounds. Intricacy and dynamism abound, even as the album provides moments of minimalistic focus that linger on careful pairings of interval and timbre, evoking influences like French musical impressionism, the tense string pieces of Julia Wolfe, and the work of film composers Akira Afukube and Zdenek Liska.

On Rat’s Spit, Lynch showcases his most expanded range to date in traversing style, production techniques, and sound palettes. The songs exhibit an array of inspirations from the world of pop music including Tears for Fears, Yes, Cocteau Twins, Kate Bush, George Clinton’s self-produced solo records, Brian Eno, and Steve Vai’s more eccentric post-Zappa production work on albums like Flexable. Lynch’s unique approach to electric guitar comes to life on Rat’s Spit, exploring the instrument’s more unconventional paths and possibilities and drawing influence from the legato lead playing of Fripp, the extended technique playing of Henry Kaiser, and analog synth layering via midi pickup à la Adrian Belew.

With songs that bloom with complexity and feeling, Rat’s Spit represents a major achievement in Lynch’s development as a musician, composer, and producer. The sonic worlds cultivated on this release mark the beginning of an exciting new era in Lynch’s evolving sound.

RAT’S SPIT TRACKLISTING

1. Catapulting
2. Meridian
3. Rat’s Spit
4. Floater
5. Peanut Butter
6. Baa
7. Strawberry Cookies
8. Hexagonal Field
9. Reallu