A High Watt Evening
Written last night under the guidance of wine and early-morning swelter.
It’s August in the valley, and aside from the haze that blocks out the blueness of the daytime sky, the unbearable heat and the moths seeking refuge in my office/den, I can tell because the wood of my bedroom door has swollen to the point that I need to throw my shoulder into it to force it open. The air conditioner is a constant electric hum — I can’t sleep without it by now. I sweat for no reason. This is my least favorite time of the year, and thus far, where July was 
over before I could realize how miserable it was, August seems to be lagging like stale desert air. Living in it is a confrontation I keep losing, and there’s only so far one can retreat.
My usual methods for maintaining livable temperatures — chewing ice, going pantsless, fans, spray cans of water, immobility, etc. — have all abandoned me. I idle my car against the advice of the back of the inspection sticker that says, “Breathe easy, no idling.” I survive on iced tea and contempt. It’s summer. And even though I know better logically and would rather spend my time in nihilistic freon ecstasy, occasionally I need to leave the house.
Such was the instance the other night; a drive out and a drive back a few hours later by myself. I made the trip with the handy typewriter case in which I keep CDs I may need on the go and, on the return journey, the inspiration struck to break out the copy of High Watt Electrocutions‘ Night Songs that band founder/lone member Ryan Settee was kind enough to send me following our interview. I was speeding along Rt. 80 leaning forward toward the windshield to see in a sudden downpour, and it was just the right combination of circumstances to make for what I supposed to be the ideal listen to the record, which I hadn’t yet heard.
Each track on Night Songs is given a time stamp, starting with opener “Sonic Maelstrom” at 9:30pm and going to “Sunrise” at 6:00am (bonus track “Radiance” is untimed), and each cut in between is meant to symbolize the experience of a sleepless exploration. I won’t say that in my car, driving at top speed through flash flood conditions, every single track connected on a transcendent level, but the moody, isolated psychedelia of “Ascention (11:00pm)” and the whispering acoustic atmosphere of “The Thief is Caught (2:00am)” moved me to the point that, even as I swerved speeding between lanes, I maintained a sense of aurally-induced serenity one can only achieve in solitary nighttime. I regret nothing in the listening.
This isn’t a review, just a simple note that Night Songs provided me with a moment of worthy companionship, whatever my later relationship with the album may or may not become. Maybe you’ll have a similar experience, maybe you won’t. It’s a big world.
