Carpenter by day and folk-pop songwriter by night, Brooklyn-based Dashel Hammerstein makes late night tunes that he calls “surfy-country-psychedelic”, an apt description of a swirling sound led by swirling antique keys and Hammerstein’s suavely wry vocals. His new full-length, Bito Cabrito, is available as a free download on Bandcamp. One of its highlights, “Down Down Boy”, sounds like a battle between cowboys and surfers; it’s a clever concoction of richly harmonized surf-rock and gravelly folk. “Now I ain’t no kind of guy-loving soul-seeking cowboy,” Hammerstein sings over the bouncy lead. “But I know when the beat has got me grinding down.” It’s hard to tell whether one could find references to Brokeback Mountain or The Endless Summer, but the stylistic juxtaposition is cohesively written nonetheless. “Down Down Boy”, as well as the entirety of Bito Cabrito, shows this Brooklyn-based carpenter as a very promising songwriter with unique stylistic quirks.
MP3: “Cowboy Kisses”
