In a modern imagining of Americana, the further west your mind goes, the more mystic it becomes—you depict vast plains and tremendous sunsets disappearing behind darkening mountains. This is what comes to mind with Gun Outfit, whose 2015 album, Dream All Over, was a virtual desert campfire, incorporating language, folklore and forgotten tonality to stir up themes of things greater than themselves. The (now) L.A.-based band will continue their perfection of Western tradition regression on their new EP, Two Way Player, out March 18 on Wharf Cat. The first single, “Expansion Pact,” is a quietly soulful rocker whose twang pierces the skin, unnoticeably, allowing for Dylan Sharp’s low humming to seep in and raise hair and hell and goosebumps. It grows into an overwhelmingly refreshing breeze with the striking of one chord. The ensuing chorus, with Carrie Keith’s hushed backing vocals, robs you of your breath, before you’re finally drowned with the inclusion of the liquid-like pull on an electric guitar at the song’s end. The song, along with the band’s recruitment of a full-time electric sitar, can only imply the resurgent prominence of Western mysticism in art. Or at least theirs.
