Cameron Undy and Oliver Thorpe are The Grass – a spacious guitar duo whose new single Porch is out now.
Drawing inspiration from Afro guitar music, Toumani Diabaté, Ali Farka Touré, Ralph Mooney, The Necks and Daniel Lanois, Cameron Undy and Ollie Thorpe unite to fuse harmonic simplicity and experimentalism with some unique string work. A mutual respect, love of African rhythm and Irish choral hymns drive a subtle music, leaving listeners adrift within a range of style, influence and technique.
“The coupling was inspired by Ollie coming to one of my solo performances and him digging the sounds I was making,” begins Undy. “We decided that rather than me explaining my perhaps dry, algorithmic methods, he’d be free to play his own impression of what he heard me doing. The result was immediately exciting, with Ollie’s lush, shimmering backdrop on the pedal steel against my rhythmic, muted string guitar playing. So we decided to hit the studio.”
As both the leading single and the record’s title track, Porch gives the feeling of sitting back and watching the world slowly unfold from the front of one’s house. Each note grows the track out in either slow, stretching slide guitar notes or through calm acoustic plucks. Contrast is key to the song; the balance between surreal warping instrumentals and intimate plucks and buzzes from the strings creates the feeling of being caught between two worlds, watching in weightlessness as the song drifts towards its end.
“The first time we played this piece. it emerged from just playing two chords out of time as we acquainted ourselves with each other,” begins guitarist Cameron Undy. “We had never played together before. It was pouring with rain outside and the water hitting the corrugated iron awning out the front of my house and dripping/running off onto the ground was making a collection of fast and slow rhythms/sounds that was somehow perfect and summoned up an image of being on a porch somewhere. I had recorded the play and so that sound/image/feeling became fixed in our minds. The next time we played it rained again! The image really solidified for us and just added to the peaceful, calming vibe of the music.“
With six tracks spanning close to a total of 36 minutes, Porch is digestible, intriguing and marks the beginning of a promising collaboration between Undy and Thorpe. Theirs is a form of folk that will catch the ears of those who both appreciate a challenge to folk instrumentalist formula and lush progressions, leaving many satisfied in their wake.
