Orlando electronic outliers Tele + the Ghost of Our Lord go country

With a career that’s been a long, winding and deeply psychedelic odyssey of reliably unorthodox music, “expect the unexpected” is the rule when approaching the work of Orlando outsider pioneer Matt Kamm. Even so, when reviewing last year’s Crown of Horns EP, released under his longtime vehicle Tele & the Ghost of Our Lord, I thought that describing that work as “house music”would probably be the most outlandish thing I’d ever have to write about him.

I should’ve known better.

In his latest chameleonic twist, one that finds him inching even closer to becoming Orlando’s own Beck, Matt Kamm has now gone country. Anyone familiar with his work will know that this is way weirder than even Beyoncé or Diplo doing it. While Kamm’s shown lots of freaky folk tendencies, the new Tele & the Ghost of Our Lord double single — “Spite the Moon” b/w “Fast Asleep on the Forest Floor” — is a total plunge into country music.

Over the past several years, Kamm’s been quietly studying country instruments like banjo, mandolin, lap steel and pedal steel. More specifically, he says, “I’ve had an obsession with pedal steel since childhood probably stemming from Santo & Johnny or Dylan’s ‘Lay Lady Lay’ but for whatever reason the instrument always seemed unattainable — both from a technical standpoint and entry-level price point.”

Earlier this year, Kamm finally landed one. Ever since, he’s gone in on it headfirst to indulge a lifelong fantasy. The results are fascinating.

To those who know Kamm’s work, this new release will almost certainly be his most
surprising material to date. After all, probably the strangest thing an eccentric can do is something deeply traditional. These two songs are the most postmodern looks from Kamm ever, without even an ounce of indie abstraction.

“After my last synthesizer jaunt, I felt like I needed to return to the basics of songwriting — start with a great song on guitar then see where it leads me,” he says. .
“Spite the Moon” ambles and twangs through a twilight ride in an easy cowboy trot with some of Kamm’s most forthright and wistful crooning yet. “Fall Asleep on the Forest Floor,” on the other hand, is a lovely rural instrumental that’s a perfect campfire lullaby.

While Kamm showcases his fluency on the full range of roots instruments here, he works them all into evocative and stylistically faithful settings for his budding pedal steel work. ( Side note: Pedal steel players have always been in short supply in the local music community, so area Americana players, take note. )

While the new Tele & the Ghost of Our Lord songs now stream everywhere and sit atop TLU's Spotify playlist, they’ll also be released as a limited-edition cassette through Orlando’s Godless America Records at Kamm’s performance this weekend at Moxie Booking’s Modern Moog 2 showcase (7 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 18, Will’s Pub, $13-$18.)


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