Album Review: Redshift by Rhyton

Redshift is Rhyton’s fifth studio album, and third for Thrill Jockey, which might be a bit surprising. The trio’s output, while applauded, has also been overshadowed by some of the players’ other work. Dave Shuford was in No-Neck Blues Band and fronts D. Charles Speer and the Helix. Rob Smith ….

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Brooklyn-based improvisational psych-rock trio Rhyton have gradually expanded their sound since their self-titled 2011 debut, incorporating exotic instrumentation and sharpening the focus of their work. Redshift, their third release for Thrill Jockey, is simultaneously their most down-to-earth recording as well as their most ambitious and wide-ranging. In the five years since its debut, the group has advanced significantly, moving beyond sounding like a jammy side project into something more concrete.

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Rhyton — Redshift (Thrill Jockey)Rhyton is, possibly, Dave Shuford’s most straightforward project, a vehicle primarily for open-ended classic rock jams, heavy on guitar and a variety of ethnically-flavored guitar substitutes. Shuford being who he is — a veteran of experimental improv-ers the No-Neck Blues Band, a down-home Johnny Cash aficionado and Jack Rose abetter in D. Charles Speer, a demented Dead Head in the Coach Fingers, a devotee of Hellenic stringed instruments and occasional Cajun by association — Rhyton is never quite that simple.

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Rhyton are a band just out of the reach of genre tags and RIYLs. If their identity has a single three-dimensional face, it is visible in the concepts that initiate their exploratory music, not in its final results. The most disorienting song on Redshift is also the most immediately accessible one. After the serpentine, bouzouki-accented instrumental opener, “The Nine”, Dave Shuford’s barrel-chested half-twang leads the title track.

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