Underwater Detection Method

Amid all his years playing with Camper Van Beethoven and the Monks of Doom, guitarist Greg Lisher’s had a solo career running irregularly since 2000. His fourth album, as well as his first for Independent Project Records, 2024’s Underwater Detection Method, brings in a new musical approach, incorporating keyboards for the first time. Working with accomplished journeyman drummer Michael Jerome, along with Stevie Blacke on a variety of string instruments, Lisher handles that plus guitar and bass to create a series of engaging, often gently mysterious wordless pieces. Besides having a gift for wry songtitles that people like Leo Kottke might appreciate – thus “The Illusion of Depth” and “Zen And The Art of Long Distance Driving” – Lisher isn’t so much trying to create stereotypical imaginary soundtracks as perfect miniatures of mood, suggestive while being engaging in their own right, whether the steady, serene drive of “Travels Through Liguria” or the gently haunted tones of “Tunneling.” There’s even some polite funk jamming going on with “Finding The Future,” and why not indeed?