We’re long overdue to feature Fields Ohio, and the release of Some Melodies Are Memories You Never Really Leave Behind, which includes unpublished tracks from their eleven-year career, provides us a prime opportunity. The long-distance, New York to Ohio collaboration between Christine Annarino and Eddie Palmer has been remarkably consistent over the years, their music incredibly hard to pigeonhole. Various permutations of guitar, banjo, ukulele, synth, bass and LoFi beats have led to a career that is both time-referencing and timeless; consider as a starting point the duo’s very first track, “Strange Things Will Happen on Interstate 70,” from (fields of ohio). A spy groove is laid atop live drums, with brass samples and the sense of watching a Western at a drive-in theatre. The track simultaneously references Morricone and Portishead; and this was just the beginning. This early effort was decidedly lofi, a mix tape of sorts beamed from an amalgamation of past lives. The banjo and beats of “Lake Erie Shipwrecks” sound as good today as they did then, dusty as a thrift shop find. Dub, loop and sample proliferate, along with hints of hauntology (“Tumble Through the Hills Without Books”), a sign of what was to come. The duo would eventually release four albums in 2013 before slowing down to a reasonable pace.
Often when one looks back, one realizes that an act was ahead of its time; the existence of “The Taylor Swift Capitalist Death Club” back in 2015 now seems prophetic. The production values are crisper here, the beats more pronounced, while the duo has lost none of its appealing oddness. Fields Ohio’s defining album arrived in 2016: Our Paper Hearts Drift In Tunnels To Sleep In Little Boxes Under Ohia Seas, which was re-released, expanded and remastered in 2022. “lake eerie wolves” starts the set with vocal loops, loping beats and investigatory guitar. The beats disappear in the back half, first revealing the other instruments and then a canopy of birds. “always dreaming of sandusky bay” is a surf charmer, while “midnight in glen echo hollow” weaves in whistling, clanking and electronic handclaps. Dub, disco and trip-hop each appear in turn, sometimes within the same tracks.
Last summer’s Don’t Stare at the Sun when your Hands are on Fire is another high point for the duo, a languid set of beat-laden tracks showcasing an array of sonic undercurrents. “never been lost at sea” ventures into a sort of world music shoegaze, a unique mash-up we thought we’d never hear. An aquatic theme is evident in titles ranging from “lighthouse i haunt” to “under atlantic waves we send the rich to their graves.” The album flows like a boat lost at sea, but well-supplied, no panic in the crew and a sense of relief that there are few duties, only the opportunity to drift to an unknown destination. Other standouts include the sublime string finale of “you wanted a war well here i am” and the post-rock flavor of closer “palisade fog show me the way home.”
Now to the current release, which is noteworthy not only for its quality, but for the inability of the listener to guess with confidence which tracks were recorded in which era. The duo continues to offer a variety pack of sounds, akin to cereal samplers (but please don’t pour milk directly on the album). Highlights include the inviting opener, “Kinnara Makes Waves,” which floats atop piano ripples and sea foam whistles; “The Holowaka Hides in the Shadow of the Sun,” a laid back piece with a light vocal sample and an Eastern flair; and the retro “Crop Invocations with Inkosazana,” which revisits the classic era of trip-hop. But in the long run, this compilation of rarities should be seen for what it is: a bonus for fans, and an invitation for newcomers to peruse the riches of the duo’s back catalog. We’re embedding three links below to get you started. (Richard Allen)
a closer listen 