Ears Wide Open: Goldwash

Kevin Bronson on August 8th, 2019

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Gabe Acheson studied classical music and jazz at Yale — in fact, he earned some degree of notoriety by fulfilling his entrance-essay promise to walk the 400 miles from his native Baltimore to Yale for his freshman year.

He has taken many steps since then, not the least important of which has been building a career as Goldwash. At first a viral sensation for his 2016 and ’17 EPs and then someone who receded from all the buzz to find his footing, the pianist-songwriter-producer has applied that high-priced education to a style of music he calls “existential funk.” It’s funky, to be sure, and far too unpredictable to simply be lumped in with mainstream pop.

Goldwash’s debut full-length, “Flat Earth Surf Club,” was conjured up after he escaped Los Angeles and, toting his surfboard and a borrowed mic, spent some time in Ensenada. Eventually he recorded the songs in L.A. with a cast including his brother Baird (featured on “Over Again”), vocalist Ayanna Woods (“That Buzz”), Owen Forgione Hill, Brijesh Pandya and horn players JP Floyd, Matt Shulman and Ryan Parrish.

His mélange of styles is met by an equally eclectic mix of emotional timbres: Goldwash falsettoes through ruminations on over-dependence on technology, intimacy and society’s seemingly increasingly tenuous mental health. When he runs out of words, the instruments take over — like Parrish’s sax on opener “My Own Devices” and the exclamatory bursts of trumpet (Shulman) and trombone (Floyd) on “Patience.” Goldwash gets caught in a rip tide, literally and metaphorically, in “Rip,” but it is only the rare moment on his debut album that he goes under.

||| Stream: “Don’t Wanna Feed the Fire Anymore,” “Rip” and “Over Again” (feat. Baird)