Bitchin Bajas are sometimes regarded as a side project of Cooper Crain, to his more rock focussed band Cave and his work as a producer. However, it’s never really been the case here, as the trio of Crain, alongside Dan Quinlivan and Rob Frye under the Bitchin Bajas banner have been a constant headliner here. The only misstep in an incredible run of albums, eps and collaborations in the last 15 years, remains that somehow jarring project name.
However, beginning with that thrilling stew of Stereolab, Spacemen 3 and Terry Riley in 2010’s Tones and Zones, each album has been an effort to explore a particular sonic space and blend of equipment. Two collaborations with Olivia Wyatt – Vibraquatic and Sailing in a Sinking Sea, one with Will Oldham (Epic Jammers and Fortunate Little Ditties) two with fellow Chicagoans Natural Information Society – Automaginary and Totality. The vast ambience of Bitchin Bajas, the rhythmic patterning of Transporteur. There was even a collection of Sun Ra covers with Switched On Ra. Perhaps Baja’s Fresh is the single most representative release of a band that seem ever keen to zone in on sounds that animate – music that bounces and ripples in forms that feel like a modern reformatting of the spaceist kosmiche music from the early 70’s.
Their most recent non-collaborative release was 2022’s Bajascillators, and whilst it was generally well received, for us, it felt like the first-time things dragged slightly. The most recent collaborative release with NIS Totality seemed to redress this balance. An album that delighted in some cosmic meditation on stasis rather than propulsion.
This apparent conceptual reset has clearly informed Inland See, a new album which we are happy to share, feels like time spent somewhere new as well. The first three tracks here stretch out over the first side of vinyl, and draw a floaty bouncing dreamlike zone around the listener’s head. Skylarking is a lysergic toytown parade wobbling into cursive jazzy arcs, Reno is drum encased keys and gentle electronics like some lost Harmonia track. The final near 9 minutes of this side is completed in glassy pools, thick buzzing drones and tape dragging of Keiji Dreams.
It doesn’t take long to see this slab of music is far more episodic than before, things don’t just establish themselves and lock into a pattern. Things breath, grow, rise and fall. We are in the midst of an adventure, what is going on is never clear, the music delights in gathering you up, and then corkscrewing, folding and regenerating in unexpected ways.
The second half of the album contains the full 19 minutes of Graut, and again, this is no locked-in trance-out. Growing out of thick organ mandalas, eventually metallic bouncing rhythms rise in and enmesh. Every forward step glimpses the future, flutes, shiny layers, neon landscapes and robot choirs. Keys, drums, everything gradually growing in intensity before gently unwinding to reveal a tiny pulse at the very heart of the music.
Inland See extends an invitation to spend time exploring, and ends up carving out some rich psychedelic journey.
A drift through some lysergic prog infused legend buried and snaking through the folds of this music, an imaginative flythrough of whatever the inland see might actually be.
Inland See ultimately feels like a subtle beast, a true slow burn. Whilst it somehow doesn’t feel it has the immediacy of some earlier recordings, it’s got that knowing sense it’s advisable to hang around and get comfortable here for quite some time.
Inland See is out now on Drag City Records
Available digitally, on cassette and vinyl here and here
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