On the latest full-length from Wet Tuna, Matt “MV” Valentine is now the main mover and shaker. He does enlist a little help across the LP, and we’ll spotlight those worthies below, but it’s Mr. Valentine’s personality that’s dominant throughout. This is a mighty fine circumstance, as the guy has dished a slew of high quality psychedelia since hitting the scene back in the mid-1990s in a variety of outfits and solo, which we’ll also cover in the text to follow. But up here is the best place to mention that Warping All by Yourself, featuring a splendid cover illustration from Dawn Aquarius, is out 4/8 on LP, CD, and digital from Three Lobed Recordings.
First things first; Pat Gubler, aka PG Six, who was once half of Wet Tuna’s core, is absent from this recording, with this reality likely to continue. One might think this a bummer, and okay, there’s no way to spin this development as good news (due to the fruitfulness of the association), but the departure hasn’t adversely impacted this new recording by Wet Tuna, and that’s an undeniably positive turn of events.
And going it alone with guest contributors isn’t unfamiliar territory for Valentine, who has chalked up an extensive list of solo recordings with assorted collaborators. His two main non-solo endeavors prior to Wet Tuna are the defunct combo The Tower Recordings (debuting in 1995 and featuring Gubler amongst others) and MV & EE, the insanely prolific (seriously, Discogs lists over 124 full-length releases from between 2001-’20) and seemingly still extant duo of Valentine and Erika Elder.
Elder contributes backing vocals to Warping All by Yourself, as does Michael Flower (of Vibracathedral Orchestra, Flower-Corsano Duo, etc.), Matthew “Doc” Dunn (of numerous ensembles plus MV & EE) and Samara Lubelski (former member of The Tower Recordings), who also plays violin. Barry Weisblat is credited with “Coney Island WAVes,” which means he went to the enduring NYC amusement park and public beach and made a field recording of the surf.
This sound opens the record at the front of “Raw Food” and closes the record at the back of a song also titled “Raw Food” (a reprise of sorts), an appealing circularity that establishes Wet Tuna’s remaking and remodeling of the “jam band” concept for the 21st century underground. If this doesn’t read like a promising undertaking, I understand, as the list of names associated with the jam band tag (at least from the 1990s when I first encountered the term) interest me not a goddamn bit.
But “Hot Food” the opener and “Hot Food” the closer pull my chain rather decisively as Valentine avoids any hackneyed chops-noodle and dives instead into a big ol’ pool of expansive swirl-glisten, with both cuts including some beautiful soaring leads. But it’s track two, “Ain’t No Turnin’ Back,” with its combination of Royal Trux in a funky mood and prime dub technique that really climbs high on the pure fuckedness meter.
“Sweet Chump Change” is no less funked up but considerably less twisted as it blends a pre-crap fusion groove with spacy-proggy guitar soloing, like if early ’70s Herbie Hancock cut a single with early ’70s Can. “So Much Vibe in the World” explores an avenue that’s vaguely Funkadelic in disposition (and closing with a little more of that Coney Island surf), while “Kinda Feelin’ Good” blends elements of reggae with sweet psych drift and beaucoup guitar burn in the back end.
“Been So Long” engages with similar tactics but substantially foregrounds strung out-bummed out folky vocalizing that stands out a bit amid all the funkiness on Warping All by Yourself; there’s even some of that spring-action ’70s keyboard through a wah-pedal sound in the closing “Raw Food.” That Matt Valentine so easily avoids the trite in his engagement with funk and Jamaican styles is testament to the guy’s overall good taste, though I wouldn’t call this iteration of Wet Tuna tasteful. But wonderfully bent? Yeah, that fits the bill.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
