Even in this age, songwriters relying too heavily
on samplers and electronic effects run the risk of creating cold, soulless,
boring music that lacks a human touch. That emphatically isn't a problem for
Minneapolis musician Martin Dosh, whose deft touch at manipulating sound seems
to grow more organic and appealing with each record, including his fourth solo
disc, Wolves And Wishes. Dosh is probably known best as a collaborator of Andrew
Bird, whose similar approach to loop-based music led to Dosh joining Bird's
live show and co-writing the 2007 disc Armchair Apocrypha. On Wolves, Dosh gathers a crowd of
accomplished improvisers, including Bird, Bonnie "Prince" Billy (who adds an
appropriately haunting wail to "Bury The Ghost"), and a bevy of Twin Cities musicians,
including Bad Plus drummer David King, guitarist Jeremy Ylvisaker, and Happy
Apple saxophonist Mike Lewis, who also accompanies Dosh on tour. Dosh breaks up
and recombines their contributions to create new, flowing currents of
polyrhythmic melody. Largely instrumental, his songs are freed from the
shackles of verse-chorus-verse structure, and seem instead to evolve like
dreams, always in motion and revealing new surprises at each turn.