“The Heartening” is the debut album from drummer and producer Amy Aileen Wood. Wood was the co-producer for Fiona Apple’s “Fetch the Bolt Cutters,” and has been Apple’s touring drummer since 2012. She’s also performed or recorded with St. Vincent, Blake Mills, David Garza, and others. “The Heartening” is another in a long line of Colorfied Records releases that spotlight musicians like Wood—someone with big-time talent, immense creativity, and a willingness to experiment, someone who’s a major player in the L.A. music scene, but who’s maybe not a household name. Wood’s album shows so much of what made “Fetch the Bolt Cutters” great—a restless, clattering, sometimes subterranean energy transmitted through a suite of sounds, through arrangements, through risk-taking forms.
I think Wood is an expert at taking what’s at hand—her drums, synths, snatches of vocals, laughter, whatever—and sculpting those elements, moving them around, and refining them into something special. There is almost nothing predictable on “The Heartening.” Wood almost never ends a song in the same place that she started it, all the trajectories here are surprising and compelling.
“Rolling Stops,” the first song on the album, is a good way to understand this. The drums are recorded so beautifully—underground at first, they emerge and bloom. This song is the first of three on the album to feature vocals and vocalizations from Fiona Apple, and “Rolling Stops” probably is the most prominent of those. Apple’s whispers and soft scatting come in around the 10 second mark and, along with the percussion, her vocals define the track. There’s a section around 44 seconds into the track when Apple sings this haunting melody alongside Nicole McCabe’s sax—just incredibly gorgeous.
“Hiccups,” too, is another highlight: bass, percussion, electronics, strings (there’s no violin listed on the credits for this one, but there’s gotta be…or something really disguised as violin). Nice beat by Wood on this one, along with some exotic-sounding other elements. Wood on this album plays, besides drums, piano, balafon, kalimba, Octobans, Juno 60, Jupiter 8, Jupiter 4, Buchla, Moog, gamelan strips, gong strips, Linn Drum, and drum programming. Great beat on this one. Super fun.
“My Shadow” is one of my favorites on the album, for showing how well Wood brings together seemingly disparate sounds into an entertaining whole. Chimes and static. Sax on this one too. Sounds a little sinister. Fun production on the drums throughout this. At 1:20, it goes big, there’s some wild sounds, big drumming too. Sounds like Hella a little, or maybe Ratatat. Nice use of sax on this one, the tone is really gentle and relaxed.
“The Heartening” is a fascinating and rewarding listen, a beautifully collaborative studio creation.