Slowcore Pioneers Idaho Share New Song; First Album in Over 13 Years Out This Month

“Snakes” is the final salvo before the release of Lapse on May 31 via Arts & Crafts, the resounding return of slowcore pioneers IDAHO with their first new album in more than 13 years.

Led by Laurel Canyon-based singer, songwriter, and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Martin since its formation in the early 90s, IDAHO has built a canon that defies the confines of indie rock, bearing the uncanny grace to stimulate equally the full spectrums of the heart, and the mind, with lush, alien four-string guitar tones draped over a ragged, elegant desertscape. “Snakes sounds like IDAHO circa ‘96,” Martin says. He calls it “a harkening back to the beginnings of IDAHO” – not as a “return to form”; but a deep visitation with the muse that ignited more than three decades, and now ten albums, of incomparable beauty and grit. 

A song about a friendship gone sour ("You’ve always had a superior air about you/As your beauty fades you lash out"), “Snakes” languishes in a solemn, resonant minor key that consumes its melodic undertones with a dose of acerbic wit. Counter to the levity and consonance of “On Fire” and “Across The Sky,” the first two singles to appear from Lapse, “‘Snakes’ inhabits a sonic space that John [Berry] and I loved to vibrate in,” Martin recalls of his late cofounder, who left the band soon after its debut album Year After Year (1992) and died in 2016. “To most folks it could be a real downer, but to John and me it would be more of a joy-filled uplifting exercise in catharsis.” Armed now with the wisdom of the grand stretch of time, the long-awaited arrival of Lapse is a lightning strike to enrich the legacy of an already enduring, yet still undersung band. Lapse is steeped in nostalgia without succumbing to: a work of pure sonic and emotional accrual; IDAHO's rebellious attempt to slow the vibration of time. 

Lapse is the first new album from IDAHO since the cult indie rock band's 2011 release, You Were A Dick. Emerging in the early 90s, often linked to the era’s post-grunge “slowcore” movement, IDAHO is uniquely distinguished by the ragged elegance of Martin's songwriting: the gentle angst of his voice leading the airy/earthen synergy of his aural desertscape. Lapse is engraved with the lush, alien tones of 4-string guitar feedback that are IDAHO’s long-standing signature: rich melancholia lavished by Martin, with bittersweet delivery, on his heartrending, cinematic songs. Lapse is an album about relationships, and relationships based on music: a snapshot of IDAHO's quintessential sound captured in newfound flux.

“Recording Lapse commenced on January 1, 2022, following a lively New Year’s Eve at the Out There bar in 29 Palms,” says Jeff Martin. “Nursing a rare hangover, I welcomed guitarist Robby Fronzo, fresh from LA, into my mother’s desert house amidst much excited barking from my pit bull Thurmon and producer/engineer Bill Sanke’s pit/lab mix Maggie. Over the next few months, this record took shape, inadvertently paying homage to IDAHO’s past, largely influenced by my collaboration with Robby. Amidst the COVID-19 outbreak, Robby reached out to me on Instagram and offered his assistance in completing the demo snippets I was sharing online... Every record since Hearts of Palm in 2000 has been more of a solo effort so the synergy of collaboration is a cool thing to have back in the fray. The high desert setting lent its voice to this LP… how could it not? The colors, textures and endless sky sunsets. Thank you mother Lynda for letting us desecrate your sanctuary for the good part of ‘22. The large living room afforded us a chance to spread out, get loud and let the sound waves develop the way they should. As fate would have it, Bill had to depart, leaving me with the task of mixing the album alone. I often wonder if a professional could have achieved a better result, but nevertheless, I take pride in finally breaking IDAHO’s dry spell.”

Tracklisting:

Kamikaze

On Fire

West Side

Heaven On Earth

Heat Seek

Somehow

Snakes

Across The Sky

Throw The Game

29 Palms

Photo credit: Matthew Reamer

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