Beach Fossils touring guitarist Zachary Cole Smith, better known as DIIV, has managed to put out a far more cohesive, enveloping album than his lo-fi indie rock counterparts with his solo debut Oshin. Underneath the layers of reverb and effects, there isn't much to the songs on Oshin, lyrically or technically, but that Smith manages to create a lot out of a little (at least in terms of feeling) is part of what makes Oshin impressive.
As Oshin's title aptly connotes, listening to the album is a submerging experience. I can see the tiny ripples every note makes, faintly undulating as watery guitars and Zach's washed out vocals in turn wash over me. Whether the songs in their fluidity trickle like riverbed runoff, swirl like a whirlpool or placidly shimmer after rushing forth like a windy stream, Oshin moves as a singular, amorphous entity. But instead of trying to learn the song titles or differentiate the songs from one another by ear, I'm happy just going with the flow, following the ever-changing current wherever it carries me.
I rarely prefer a musician's solo work over that of his or her primary band's, but Zachary Cole Smith has definitely made a bigger splash with me than any fossil I may find washed up on the beach.
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