Wet Garden - Deep in Earth

I know I’ve written, on this space and others, about the double life of electronic artists and the secret nocturnal chamber of the Go Bar in Athens. We talked about the oneiric quality of my memories and how my time spent there feels like a parallel universe isolated from any other facet of town, all the more ethereal because hours may never drain so freely from me again.

But Wet Garden embodies both the Go and anonymity more than any other outfit I can recall. For me, the duo seemed to not even exist outside of their enigmatic gigs. Shannon Perry was the kind of vocalist I’d only heard about, but never seen, whose lush but indecipherable pillow talk lent a seductive aura to Michael Pierce’s battery of modular synths and warped guitars. Back then, the mystery of Perry’s words nagged me, like gaping holes in a 200-piece jigsaw puzzle. Now I realize, those absent pieces are what lock me into Wet Garden’s patient pulses. The gaps become part of the picture.

From what I can gather on the interwebs, Deep in Earth (out today via Null Zone) is Wet Garden’s first actual tape. But their SoundCloud page stretches back to 2014, and countless late nights have sharpened the duo’s sense for fluid grooves. Even when the tracks boil down to a Plastikman minimum, like on “Don’t Deny” or “Fall Over,” a Tangerine Dream momentum keeps us afloat in our private cosmos. The tape’s most obvious climax, “Close Up,” is a seven-minute master class in how to keep a live audience engaged without blowing yr cover—beats and ride cymbals phase in and out with the organic ease of the shifting tides.

What really makes Deep in Earth sublime, though, is its majestic restraint. “Waking Up,” in particular, hints at a dub-like approach to negative space, although you have to tilt yr head a few degrees (or just soak yrself overnight in Seekersinternational) to catch the connection. The stark closer “Inside” also conjures wonders from the abyss, but from another angle—here, over bubbling synths and Perry’s shadow whispers, Pierce mutilates his guitar to map eerie spider veins which bend and warp in the recesses. Old pictures on my computer illustrate these tricks, with the garden maestro’s fingers and face always blurred; once, he’s jammed a drumstick under the strings, while in another he’s on the floor with Perry, bent over the guitar as if his axe were a circuit board. (Perry, who sits nonchalantly with her legs underneath her as she croons, appears crystal clear in every shot. That, too, is telling.)

I may never completely divorce Wet Garden from the eternities I spent at Go Bar, but you shouldn’t need to stand on concrete floors and stare at gold foil curtains to succumb to a trance. Deep in Earth transcends place and identity, inviting the listener to project a secret journey over Perry and Pierce’s blurred canvas. Without bodies or words to obstruct yr progress, paths emerge in infinite directions, from dimly lit club floors to glistening caverns. It’s a tape that could travel anywhere, and which only stretches farther as you sink more time into its depths.

Wet Garden will celebrate the release of Deep in Earth on Sun., Mar. 25 at Hendershot’s Coffee Bar in Athens alongside Carey, Grant Evans, and Severe Blush (Record Release). Doors open at 7 p.m. Admission is FREE. All ages.

More Info
Bandcamp: wetgarden.bandcamp.com
SoundCloud: @wet_garden