Stream Wet Hair's New Album "The Floating World"

Shortly after Wet Hair finished their most recent album The Floating World, the Iowa City band almost called it quits. Returning from a west coast tour with Merchandise, that included a show in a swamp where the promoter stabbed someone, Shawn Reed entered the studio to finish vocals and finish the band.

"On a personal level it was a really heavy time and the record vocally and lyrically became a sort of eulogy for a unique and dense era of my life spent in Iowa City," he explains.

The dramatic departure of a close friend added to Reed's uncertainty and a general sense of closure. "It all happened very quickly, that situation manifesting and remaining totally mysterious, finishing the record, playing our last show and me deciding that I was done with my life in Iowa City. I basically moved back to my parents house and then a month later I was living in the Twin Cities."

Despite the uncertainty and relocation Wet Hair thankfully continued and this week release The Floating World that you can stream below. While Reed continues to operate his long running label Night People, The Floating World is released on Brooklyn label Wharf Cat. The seven tracks that bridge psych and beautiful noise pop are some of the brightest of the band's catalogue. Tracks like "Revealing" and "Dear Danae" offer warm melody while the eight-minute workout jam "Endless Procession" flexes some muscle. With Reed's striking cover collage that reflects on the Japanese concept of ukiyo ("The Floating World"), the album is a powerful full stop to an era in the Midwestern DIY experimental music scene.

Noisey: Why Wharf Cat? Is there a connection between the guys who run Wharf Cat, Merchandise and Night People?

Shawn Reed: The initial connection was through Carson Cox of Merchandise and yeah, the Merchandise guys are old friends of ours. The record was just too dense on a personal level and it kinda got buried. I think it's our best record but if it would have been up to me to put it out I don't think it ever would have happened. After I moved to the Twin Cities and Wet Hair ended I had lost a lot of confidence creatively which didn't help.

There seems to be a slight change on this record. "Dear Danae" is more concise but then you have the jam in "Endless Procession" How did you approach this record?

It was an extension in the progress I think you can hear as you go record to record in our catalog, just pushing things forward but not totally abandoning the initial aesthetics of the project. We didn't approach it much different then any other records but by that point Justin had been in the band longer so his influence which was big musically had more fully taken form.

As someone who has long been involved in DIY music and labels what still makes you excited about the scene?

I've been fully embedded in underground music since I was 13 or 14 years old and I am 36 now. I've seen a lot come and go and so much change. To be honest in some ways I think it is dying out or has died out in some ways, it's not a good time for the sustainability of music making, the financial aspect seems particularly tough and I think the saturation due to time and technology has watered things down and made it harder to find music that feels really fresh and interesting.

My major connection to the DIY scene is Night People and that has been slowly dying for a long time. Also not touring anymore has put me in a much more isolated world. I still like a lot of the artists I work with, I still communicate with old friends but that scene that time is kind of extinct in my life. After I moved to the Twin Cities I was really bummed out for a couple years and I really focused on my love of reggae, dub, dancehall etc. and studying that music very deeply and the other musical forms that grew out of it.

How are you involved in the music?

My friend Derek Maxwell teamed up with me and through some help and donations by other friends we started building a mobile sound system inspired by old Jamaican and UK systems. We DJ more like an electronic music project with synths, drum machines and live effects. That is were my head and heart is musically and we are really pushing to make it as hybrid and unique as we can. I find new or old records that inspire me almost everyday so that seems to never end.

'Floating World' is available June 16 through Wharf Cat.