In 2012, Dylan Sharp and Carrie Keith of Gun Outfit moved from Olympia, Washington, where the weather had grown “oppressive,” and headed down to Los Angeles. The change in locale seemed to seep into the band's sounds: the paisley folk rock of the excellent Dream All Over, released in 2015 by Paradise of Bachelors, echoed the cinematic weirdness of L.A. and found Sharp and Keith drifting into a temporal lull. “In L.A., the time situation is different – the speed of things,” Sharp says. “Trends come and go really fast…it makes time accelerate and draw out...the environment affected my perception of time.”
The band’s followup EP, Two Way Player, due out February 21 on via Wharf Cat Records, continues a luxurious sink into the western scene, where Keith and Sharp find themselves not only inspired by Los Angeles, but by the surrounding deserts, the beach, the forests, and the Sierra Nevada mountains. And it continues to play with the listener's sense of time. “The songs are very vibe heavy, creating an environment or a feeling,” Sharp says. “The expansiveness is what we’re going for.”
Two Way Player opens with the spacey "Expansion Pact," its spidery guitar lines tangled up under Sharp's baritone. "I did a lot of drifting," Sharp sings. "Oh no, I ain't fond of that no more." On the languid "Drive Off," Keith's voice cracks between waves of spring reverb. On the crashing "Our Time," the group locks into a gentle drone. It's a mellow and sublime follow up to the band's latest LP.
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