New Dog - "Sleeping Bag".

A song that turns over, that shifts in its own shadow, as time goes on. It begins as direct address; it ends in solitary quiet, interwoven guitar. There is a guitar solo like a felled wood. There is movement in the air.

Sleeping bag is an ugly phrase. But is anything more intimate than a shared bedroll? Two cocooned shapes, tall sky, earth that seems to go on forever. Touch and murmur, equilibrium, dew. A closeness that can be too close, or next to too close.

A man in a sleeping bag knows the outside space like he is already in it. He feels the tremors in the air. He feels the dappled light. He feels the wind that passes between grassblades, doorposts, hills.

A song like this, you wonder: what would we do without guitars? How would we show the world?

[New Dog is new music from Anar Badalov, who played songs with Travels and Metal Hearts. / It recalls Yo La Tengo, Julie Doiron, mid-period Cat Power. / buy at Bandcamp.]

(photo by Filippo Minelli)