Under the
North Americans banner,
Patrick McDermott has explored a range of sonic textures, from the growling drones and abstract channel-flipping of 2014's
No_No to the meandering American primitive guitar figures on 2018's
Going Steady. After signing with
Third Man, the project morphed into a duo with the inclusion of Portland pedal steel player
Barry Walker. Almost unrecognizable from
McDermott's earlier work, their 2020 collaboration,
Roped In, was laconic and ethereal, a languid conversation between two improvisers. The duo's follow-up (and
McDermott's fifth overall as
North Americans) follows a similar pattern and is, if anything, even sleepier than its predecessor. Ostensibly,
Long Cool World is an album of acoustic guitar (nylon- and steel-stringed) and pedal steel instrumentals, largely improvised, and without a lot of definition. The songs move across the stereo field in humid, pink-clouded drifts, occasionally whipping up a small storm, but mostly ambling at their own easy pace. Underneath the surface of
Walker's shimmering steel tones and
McDermott's circular patterns, however, are finer details worth listening for. Tracks like "Think of Me as a Place" and "Crossed Up" are surprisingly dense affairs, underpinned by a mild chaos of effects and murmuring static. The manipulation is so subtle, it's hard to pick out what, apart from the guitars, is happening in each song. At its most tranquil, like on the lovely "The Last Rockabilly,"
Long Cool World is like a warm wind, gently pushing listeners down an unknown but inviting path. It's ambient music for slow walking and daydreaming with enough organic elements to keep it loosely tethered to reality. ~ Timothy Monger