There’s not a wealth of music available from Billy Bennett but after seeing some footage from his Record Store Day performance at Fond Object, I was intrigued to find what was available. To date, he has two EPs – Placate Your Illusion (from 2015) and Moral Calculus, released in July 2017. It’s not a ton to go off of to form an opinion but what’s here is quite good.
The headlining track of the latest EP, entitled “Patchwork Man”, flows between several movements of style all paying homage to different types of 60’s psychedelia, without feeling like they’re aping that style. The first two minutes are a Jefferson Airplane-esque romp before sliding into an absolutely breezy, saxophone fueled, sparseness. Maybe that’s overly flowery language to describe what’s happening but give it a whirl and I think you’ll agree.
The second track, “Centimental”, is a bit more languishing and crooning but every bit as subtlety experimental in the styles it fuses together. On the whole, the two tracks are a promising hint at a potential full-length album that could span any number of genres while still feeling like Billy Bennett.