The sticky wicket of adhering to the notion of artistic identity can either stifle or shepherd musicians across a variety of styles. But one of the more beautiful parts of anyone’s creative passage is when it becomes unbearable to produce within any predisposed bucket of categorization, and when the many hands that have helped you through become less like footnotes and more like guideposts. Foundations. We’re each a great big mashup of countless flotsam, despite our best efforts. And whether that’s presented upfront or is a bit guarded is up to those who are sharing it.

To that end, this edition of Spin Cycle spotlights two artists whose albums represent their debuts, yet also their emergence from beneath the shadows of the artistic monoliths that helped rear them. It also shines on a third band, whose output can’t help but salute to their musical forebearers. 

And they all slap. 

Blind Trust – Lisa Molinaro 

For fans of Sarah Neufeld, Kishi Bashi, Neko Case

Striking out on your own can be scary, but try telling that to multi-instrumental wunderkind Lisa Molinaro. A longtime hired gun in the studio for such revered Portland artists as The Decemberists and Modest Mouse, and boasting live credits as a violist with The National, Molinaro opens up a treasure chest of art-pop sensibilities on her debut solo LP, Blind Trust.

This is music that comes through the speakers sounding well-traveled, wide open to a range of instrumental possibilities, and sharpened by years in collaborative roles with dance companies, film scores, and the grind of being on the road with a wide variety of artists. The expansiveness is thrust earward from the outset, with the spacious pulse of “Not So Secret Codes” splitting time between indie-diva swagger and a slow-blooming diorama of moody pop poise. Molinaro couples organic string timbres with a low roil of synths, accentuating the pleading heard in “We All Get Stuck,” the album’s lead single—one of its most vital displays of multi-layered experimental flair. The song’s commentary on overcoming stagnation finds parallels with Molinaro’s own long and winding path toward solo liberation, with  impassioned lines like “Wait for the next sun / To bring us back under the gun / It’s no use if we stay / ‘Cause it’ll all just get undone.” 

Molinaro’s sound and vision is injected with a snarl on the shoegaze-y “Peach Fuzz,” a hypnotic, rollicking chapter in an otherwise less aggressive collection of auditory Easter eggs and lyrical abstractions. On “The Apparition,” Molinaro saves her most gorgeous compositional efforts in a song festooned with contemplative harmonies, haunting strings, and a grumbly rhythmic bed shaped by twinkly pianos. 

Going solo never sounded so sweet.

Blind Trust was self-released on July 17. The album can be purchased on vinyl or as a digital album through Lisa Molinaro’s Bandcamp. For more info, visit lisamolinaro.com.

The Womack Sisters – The Womack Sisters 

For fans of Sharon Jones, En Vogue, The Supremes

Guided by a shared lineage that harkens to the absolute pinnacle of soul and R&B, The Womack Sisters—Kucha, Zeimani, and BG—channel a sound steeped in the echoes of the past, while remaining firmly focused on the present of their burgeoning introduction to the world at large. 

The granddaughters of soul luminary Sam Cooke, daughters of Womack & Womack (Cecil and Linda), and the nieces of R&B great Bobby Womack, the Los Angeles-based Sisters have spent years shaking off the pressures that their famous last name brings, finally settling with the clear-eyed retro-soul heard throughout the nostalgic rivulets of their first proper album. “If I Let You” ushers in a classic soul party groove, with the Sisters’ lush vocals occupying an angelic headspace that ripples over the entire LP. “Laughter and Tears” delivers a funk-riddled banger with plunky organs and a plucky backbeat, each of which do wonders in guiding the Sisters’ stone-cold harmonic discipline.

The Womack Sisters feels vintage, mining old and new in a triumphant arc. Heavy reverb is sprinkled liberally across 11 songs that don’t only rest on the laurels of their nostalgic underbelly, but enhance and update the neo-soul milieu with pleading dissertations of feminine power, wrapped up in the kind of heart-on-your-sleeve R&B that would make their family proud. This sentiment is bullseyed on the ultra-cool “You Went Away Too Long,” a song that pairs a bubbly verse with an ominous onslaught of organs and chimes in a chorus that details a story of absence not necessarily resulting in a fonder heart. 

Later, the wistful “I Am Your Season,” a song written by producer Wayne Gordon, takes an Impressions-tinged stroll down memory’s backroads. You can almost hear the crackle of the radio static as the song’s lovers’ lane atmospherics take hold. 

The self-titled debut from The Womack Sisters will be released August 14 via Daptone Records. The group is performing at this year’s Pickathon festival at Pendarvis Farm at 12:01 am Sunday, August 2  at the Paddock Stage, and at 11 am on Sunday, August 2 at the Woods Stage. The album can be pre-ordered on vinyl and a digipak CD from The Womack Sisters’ Bandcamp. 

Rat Bastard – Mock Media 

For fans of Dwight Twilley, National Wake, Joe Strummer

In something of a scavenger hunt of yesteryear sonic goodies, Vancouver, B.C.’s Mock Media pilfer and polish elements of dub, power-pop, hair metal, sneering dance-punk, and way more on their satisfying third album, Rat Bastard.

A hodgepodge of inspirations populate the 10 blistering tracks on this reverent collection, beginning with “Mock City Rock,” a David Byrne-adjacent blast of new wave funk that announces the band’s penchant for homage. They’ve got a predilection for almost-zero-irony genre-hopping, which can be heard on Clash-conjuring dub mutations like “Fell From the Top,” or the thrashy metal cut, “Built for Speed.” On the latter, a no-bullshit trudge of chunky riffs drives a hilarious sendup of Maiden-esque bravado, replete with customary guitar solo and falsetto chorus. Throughout these experiments in pop excavation, Mock Media showcases clear adoration for and spiritual alignment with the sounds they quarry, essentially crafting a mixtape listening experience a la Ween’s quirky catalog. 

“Turn for the World” exhibits an Afrobeat dancehall crasher that folds in fiery monotone vocals in a global music affair accentuated by steelpan drums and synth. Further aural travels include Brazilian baile funk, Eurodance, and cumbia hybrids on “Straight Line,” a free-for-all bizarro-pop deluge that shapeshifts as much in one song almost as much as the entire record does. 

Though this album’s magic relies somewhat on an awareness of domestic and international pop subgenres and side hustles, its deft application of formidable playing across such a stretchy hybrid of styles is the real rabbit in the hat. 

Rat Bastard dropped July 17 on Mac’s Record Label. Vinyl copies can be purchased through the Mac’s Record Label website.