NEW ALBUM: Idgy Dean - Ominous Harminus

Idgy Dean was one of the first shows we saw this Spring at SXSW in Austin. Listed on the schedule as a “one-woman rock band from Brooklyn”, we didn’t quite know what to expect, but it turned out to be one of the best shows we saw at the festival.

Lindsay Sanwald, the woman behind Idgy Dean, is a master in the art of looping, something that is typically performed by wedding or event musicians to produce thicker sound without adding more people to the band. Yet the way Lindsay is doing it, is something else. Live, she goes wild on stage, as you can see from our SXSW review.

Interestingly enough, she also records the same way as she plays live. In Overture, the album’s 9:19 minute opener, you get a taste of Idgy Dean’s musical world: after a clip of a phone call that has changed her life, tribal drums set in (she plays them stand-up, so there are no kicks or hi-hats), thrown in are also pretty and friendly vocal layers and psychedelic guitar riffs. The following six tracks present more of that – the album goes out on another phone call at track 8: Idgy Dean never strays too much from her musical baseline. But then, she doesn’t have to, because the music sounds fresh and energetic throughout the around 35 minutes of the album.

Idgy Dean is playing CMJ on Thursday, October 15th at Pianos. Her self-released album Ominous Harminus is out now. Listen to it on Apple Music or Spotify.