The blending of folk music with electronic elements is, quite logically, called “folktronica”, but clever as that tag is, it isn’t quite right for what Sawtooth Witch does. By taking the sounds more associated with American roots music and then making them dance deftly over chilled dancefloor beats, they create something that feels it could only have come from that country, something with a sense of place, even if such a blend of the old and new seems to defy chronology. They call it acoustic dance music, maybe that is enough.
Together, multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Pat “Doc” Dougherty and fiddle player Haley Fleming have created something that merges worlds, not only mixing sounds and styles, the rural and the urban, but even eras and timelines.
“The Hustle” is the perfect opener, with poignant words lifted from the Emma Lazarus sonnet The New Colossus (later added to The Statue of Liberty), blending empathy with artistry, a bluesy groove with skittering dancefloor beats, and neatly lays out the brilliant musical creativity that follows, and the reminder that opposites do indeed attract.
“The Weight” mixes up splashy, almost industrial beats with a fiddle that soars and sweeps, is melancholy, lingering, and lovely. “Coming to America” feels like a continuation of the message found in the opener, but this time things have a more neo-soul-pop feel, and “Leave The Light On” rounds things off in buoyanta buoyant and brilliant fashion.
If folktronica is not a new thing, this album certainly feels like a new take on it, an evolution of both the established rootsy sounds at its heart and a wonderful tangential journey for dance music. Most genre fusions fail, often feeling too forced, too fractured, too illogical. The Chariot, however, feels like the most natural musical move I have heard in a long time.
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