Matt Valentine is a master of haze. Drop a needle – physically, digitally, psychically – on any of his records with The Tower Recordings, Wet Tuna or MV & EE (his longstanding band co-founded with wife/musical partner Erik Elder) and you'll drip into barn burners, country cosmos, freaky folk and weirdo boogie. It's psychedelia as familiar as your hand, but also as alien as your hand, man. Funk's always been a wobbly thread through his music, but has never sounded as smooth as here — bongos sweep softly across a Fender Rhodes jimmy jam, as Valentine's signature guitar fuzz dials down to a fuchsia-tinted fusion. Think: pencil-thin mustaches, forest-dwelling wizards on a shroom voyage, festival-ready Santana solos, Don Cherry's whispered funksterpiece "Brown Rice" and Funkadelic's dictum to free your mind... your ass will follow.
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