James Krivchenia - Performing Belief

When the winter is wintering , I find my listening habits going two ways. On some days I lean into the wintery-ness, listening to moody, atmospheric, sparse sounds - appreciating the slowing down that comes with the frosty season. But when the (pleasant) slowing down turns into (dreadful) fatigue and lethargy, that’s when I need a record that goes in the exact opposite direction, a record that’s energetic and upbeat and that makes me want to get up and move around and get things done.

My recent go-to album for that mood has been James Krivchenia’s ‘Performing Belief’. It’s a lot of things at the same time: it’s chaotic, it’s playful, it’s fun. At times it comes across as naive or crude or even sloppy, but that’s what makes it feel alive and adventurous: it has the spirit of a bouncy jam session, it doesn’t need to be perfectly measured. And while it’s definitely electronic music, it uses all sorts of organic sounds and instrumentations - collaborators Joshua Abrams and Sam Wilkes provide double bass and electronic bass guitar respectively.

I hear clear echoes of Brazilian funk and the Congolese group Konono No. 1; I hear textures that remind me of Ninja Tune artists like Amon Tobin and of 90s video game soundtracks; I hear percussion-styles borrowed from all sorts of traditions - but the end product is entirely, addictively it’s own thing. What I could absolutely not have heard or guessed just from listening to the album: when he’s not making such weirdly intoxicating computer music, James Krivchenia is the drummer for Big Thief. Talk about versatility!

~ Berry (long-time reader, first-time contributor - hi!)

Listen to the album on Bandcamp or elsewhere.