There are some songs we wish would go on forever. For me, “ghost pine eyes” is one of those songs. Every time my ears reach the end of those three-and-a-half minutes, I feel my body wondering with hope, “Is this one of those false pauses? It must be. The song will continue again.” But no, all things end.
That’s just to speak of the third track on six, the third full-length album by Credit Electric, a tough-to-categorize group from the Bay Area led by Ryan LoPilato. Many of the songs are twangy as heck and blessed with pedal steel, so we have to call it country. But it’s also got this melancholy indie sound, like slowcore composed in solitude at the seashore. Sometimes, it’s nearly ambient. Or at least downtempo. It’s a little bit machine-like and yet completely alive. It’s the work of a single mind yet also the melding of several, including contributions by Lanéya Billingsley (Billie 0cean) and Eva Goodman (Nighttime). It’s quiet, present, reflective. Personal? Yes. Perhaps, in a world where bombs and murder still reign, that’s what makes it essential.
Why the number six? LoPilato explains:
“There are six elements of tragedy. I’m not really a theater person at all but I appreciate the original intention of tragedy: pain awakening pleasure. Other synchronicities also provoked the title. In the Quran and in the book of Genesis the heavens and earth were created in six days. There are six lines in a hexagram, found in cosmological diagrams in Hinduism and Buddhism. There are six points in the seal of Solomon and the star of David. Saxophones have six tone holes, guitars have six strings.
Most of the bass and keyboard used on the record was made by Yamaha, which has six letters. Yamaha means ‘mountain blade’ which is a reflection of a samurai’s legacy. Six is a military term for what is behind you. It takes about six months to recover from the breakup of a long term relationship. The album carries a theme of being present in reflection.
