Review Summary: My lips are the only source of water for miles...
A search of Josiah Wise’s moniker serpentwithfeet will result in a flamboyantly dressed black man with a huge septum piercing, different colors of glitter in his beard, and the words “suicide” and “heaven” along with a pentagram tattooed on his forehead. Far from a cry for attention, Wise’s look and his musical project serpentwithfeet is the result of self-realization that the best version of himself is a fiercely honest gay man, bringing a voice to all the melancholy and unpalatable aspects of not only his sexuality but his psyche. Self-described as pagan gospel,
Blisters is a beautiful, haunting illustration of this fierce honesty, painting Wise’s airy vibrato against a magnificent backdrop of classical instrumentation by Haxan Cloak. Wise himself exhibits a subtle fragility in his voice while simultaneously delivering his message with a wild confidence. His lyrics eschew melody in favor of a semi-spoken word approach that allows Wise to place emphasis where he sees fit throughout the songs, not where song structure might dictate. One surprising and frankly endearing aspect of
Blisters is despite the heavy subject matter, Wise never comes off as a proselytizer.
Blisters is as much an act as it is a memorandum as Wise’s poetic musings are frequently followed by graphic, frank passages as heard on the EP’s climax “Four Ethers”
Babe I know you learned some fucked up shit from your mother/Had you tucking your dick/Had you hiding the shit that really made you special
In tandem with Wise’s lilting vocals, Haxan Cloak’s production completes
Blisters’ haunting atmosphere. The generally sparse classically-leaning music juxtaposes the vocals nicely and other than “Four Ethers” never raises its intensity any noticeable degree. It is in “Four Ethers” however that the listener’s attention is firmly in Wise’s palm. A beating drum and horns greet the listener and gently rise in volume as the song goes along. In addition to being the only song that presents a legitimate climax moment, it’s probably the most over-the-top song on the EP in terms of its theatrics; a bold experiment in an otherwise pensive album.
Blisters however, is one large experiment. The very name serpentwithfeet (for those who’ve read the Bible) alludes to a time before the fall of humanity, before the original sin was committed. Wise makes this concept his own with
Blisters, and creates a very avant, very personal piece of work. His brash style of storytelling is nothing if not refreshing and besides that, it’s just some damn fine RnB.
