
Mothers. Fathers. Gather ‘round. If your kid has some weird tendencies, distract him by purchasing a musical instrument, or three, of his or her liking. You know what? Even if your kid isn’t a psycho in training, dollop musical gear throughout your home. It’ll make that oh so adorable offspring of yours something more than a drone in ensuing years. Really.
That wasn’t the impetus of Baths, bka Will Wiesenfeld, per se. But the newly released album Cerulean, issued through Anticon, is the end result of a childhood spent in the pursuit of music. Granted, the hazy electronic sounds emanating from Baths’ first long player are going to fit into a general perception about the electronic music landscape down there in So Cal. But even if the argument that time and place has as much to do with the development of a mind, musical or otherwise, if this is the worst case scenario, it’s still a good deal all around.
Before completely pigeonholing Baths as an extension of the Flying Lotus, Ras G and Daedelus arm of electronic musics, take a listen to “?.” It’s three and a half minutes of pure, uncompromising pop drollness. But being what it is allows the song to claim influence from lame eighties’ pop in addition to the better respected IDM producers kicking around today.
The song counts as a lame low point, but one obviously crafted from the appreciation of disparate musics. Just like “Indoorsy.” These two transgressions, though, can be forgiven. That’s how good the rest of Cerulean actually sounds.
Before running through the tremendous achievements, though, it’s worth pointing out that Baths counts as Anticon continuing to scout out talent to sate it’s auld tyme core audience of beat appreciators and the newer, indie (douche) rock contingent. Proposing Sole’s departure from the fold being predicated on this is a bit much. But there’s no doubt that the economic benefit of working with a wider scope of artists has kept the label solvent in a time when other imprints have disappeared or been drastically effected by economic issues.
Either way, the casual grace spewing out of “Seaside Town” easily counts as one of the better instrumental tracks dedicated to representing the tide through song. Yeah, the interspersed vocal samples of kids proclaiming how cool the view is winds up being less than favorable, but moves the track and the album towards its intended purpose. Good music.

