Lesser Beings – This Is All There Is

This Is All There Is comes from Austin based lo-fi recorder Lew Houston, his first recent release not “recorded in an RV in a driveway in Austin, TX,” as with his three prior Breatherholes releases, and the first recorded with a full band, now re-christened Lesser Beings. Mixed and recorded by Hans Zimmerman from the Young, the expanded project scrapped the RV for “a room in a building on a street in Austin” and finished production work in “a shed in a yard on a street” earlier this summer. Lew’s solo output since 2011 has been a potent brew of outsider pop, with aspects of composition and experimentation that might ring a bell for your favorite Brattleboro-savant or if you’ve spent a lot of time in Nate Henricks’ back catalog. Sacrificing his usual inspired multi-tracking for drum and bass backing, the new mix could be mistaken for moderation, particularly on the wrong speakers, but listening on cassette the change easily proves itself, giving new resonance to a different sort of songwriting — one that may have been obscured by the novelty of his earlier arrangements. Download the tape for free or buy a cassette copy from Lew’s Bandcamp and website, respectively.