Sometimes a major saving grace for an album is by the sheer dedication to its vision and in STREAKING IN TONGUES’ newest release Slow Dancing with Bigfoot, the vision is one of absurdity that finds itself grounded with real emotion and a purveying sense of melancholy. The group consisting of poet Marty Achatz and musicians Ronnie and Elliot Ferguson have been releasing albums steadily for a little while now, and despite being unfamiliar with them this record is shockingly accessible. It’s cut from the poetry world, so expect a certain level of obtuse metaphor and nonsensical stories.
A lot of it we experience in an almost travelogue format as we follow Bigfoot (or at least someone named Bigfoot, some of this is up for interpretation) on his various journeys and the people he encounters along the way. In a lot of ways, it’s a slice-of-life project that captures the everyday and the smaller moments we take for granted. Little tiffs with family and friends, memories of times well past, but the album also isn’t afraid to break away for little tales ranging from gleefully absurd to many somber affairs as seen in “A Pigs Orgasm Lasts 30 Minutes” and “Catfish have 27,000 Taste Buds” respectively. Because of how long the album is it definitely acts as a grab bag of ideas to explore and the instrumentation is so basic and grounded it’s easy to remain invested and engaged.
I do hope with future releases the band might experiment with a little bit more variety in instrumentation to match Achatz’s almost David Byrne levels of wild lyricism and stories. By the end of the record, I felt a certain level of sadness that things had come to an end as you’ll find yourself getting invested in the variety of characters and situations and I can imagine many finding spots that’ll strike a very specific chord with them. If you’re not a big poetry fan I implore you at the very least to give this album a shot. It’s wildly charming and these stories will linger in your head, even if you didn’t love the album as a whole. There’s purity on display and the band you can tell really believes in this format and these stories. The group also refreshingly so never takes themselves too seriously. They want you to have a good time and fall into these worlds they’re creating.
The opening alone “Thirteen Ways of Looking at Bigfoot” serves as a perfect thesis statement for the album. You get a slice of something we might have an idea of and then turn it on its head until it almost becomes silly, but it’s wonderfully pulled back from going over the edge. It feels like a storybook, but for adults and the childlike wonder on display emphasizes it. I really loved this album and I wanna keep a lot of the surprises and stories you’ll hear under wraps so you can experience it for yourself, but it’s a dance you won’t soon forget.
Jodi Marxbury