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Josiah Wordsworth

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Hometown	Minneapolis, MN
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About the Artist

Since 2005, Josiah Wordsworth has been dazzling listeners with a refreshingly new sound that is taking audiences by storm. The sound lies somewhere in the realms of jazz, classical and rock; however, cannot claim itself to be anyone in particular....

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May 2008 Experimental

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Press Coverage

Wordsworth! Album Review by Rocksellout.com
Josiah Wordsworth have crossed Rocksellout’s path before, and now they’re back with their debut full length album Wordsworth! (a nice allude to those classic Verve album titles). This is music that screams to be heard in the highest quality you can find. There’s boldness, nuance, texture - all going into the same pot with tracks melting into each other, creating an unending weaving of sound. So adept are they at creating moods, don’t be surprised if Josiah Wordsworth have you composing film scenes in your head whilst listening. If a track or two gets too cute with its own grandoisity (Don’t Tread On Me!), it’s often balanced out with beautiful understatement (Poetic Wax), so, while I’d consider it primarily music for musicians, even the common layman can pop it on and enjoy themselves. Josiah Wordsworth are at their most charmful on “My Catholic Darling,” the first single off the album. Rollicking, fun, and, of course, accomplished - this song should be included on an instructional CD for mandatory listening by any band with prog tendencies. -Keath

This CD is Highly Dangerous… HANDLE WITH CARE!!! by Abi Rhodes
Just in case you were wondering, Josiah Wordsworth is a cunningly encoded reduced anagram of Jordan Slominski & Andrew Weidner, the 2 main protagonists featured on this ‘ere disc. Firstly, I have to tell you that each of the 5 tracks on this mini-album, EP, what-you-will…. is rather like the entire score of a short film – seeming to tell a story – you are simply required to supply the visuals. What fun! The opener ‘Witch Hunt’ starts with a distillation of the best bits from those heavy piano concerti – Greig, Tchaikowski etc – that everyone loves but finds it difficult to remember which is which [or witch is witch]. This sound is fused with a variety of jazz and rock styles that leave one marveling at the creative way the styles are cut into each other. The Hunt then helter-skelters along car-chase fashion… whether it ever reaches a satisfactory conclusion.. I leave you to decide. ‘Drive-By Media’ is also a pursuit story but this time with the Keystone Kops visiting PT Barnum’s Big Top. ‘Silver Dollar Swagger’ boogies along nicely but a slightly hidden undertone that threatens to overwhelm the swaggerer. Track 4, ‘Rock Song’ starts in a heavy Steve Reich style but becomes another tale of urgent evasion of lurking dark forces. The closing number ‘Eulogy’ is rather funereal in demeanour and has one grieving for a lost… what? I must emphasize that these tales are supplied by me – you will no doubt be able to create your own. So try not to be influenced by my descriptions – just let the magnificent music guide you through parts of your imagination, which have been closed off these many a long year. You might find as I have, that, with repeated listening, it’s sometimes hard to distinguish where one track/story ends and the next takes over. This only adds to the endless variety of creative visualization you can apply to these wonderful pieces. It may well be that each number can be considered to be a tone poem in its own right but they somehow coalesce into a suite. It’s your call. And….Highly Dangerous? I played this record 5 times on the trot [no pun intended] while on a long distance journey across the South of England and found myself going faster and faster reaching at least 105 mph at one stage – it was like I was on a Mario Brothers Race Track. The music had taken over completely. Mind what you’re doing when it takes over you!

Score: 7.5/10 by The Silent Ballet
Consisting of mainly piano and drums, the music created by Minnesotan duo Josiah Wordsworth hovers between rock, jazz ,and classical. Their debut EP, Blue State, features 5 tracks that are refreshingly unique. “Witch Hunt” begins dramatically with a brooding piano piece that builds intensely, like a magnificent storm approaching. Dark and compelling, it is an exquisite way to open an album. The dark mood is suddenly disrupted by a series of fast-paced jazz inspired piano pieces, at first the bursts of upbeat piano throughout the track seem out of place, but ultimately it is these shifts in mood and structure that make the track all the more disturbing and appealing. “Witch Hunt” sounds like a battle between two split personalities, one good, and one menacingly evil. Imagine yourself as a child visiting a circus. There’s a ringmaster, clowns, and an assortment of animals. It looks like any other circus from the outside, but inside…The ringmaster is a horrifically deformed monster of a man, the clowns are sinister looking, their mouths are filled with yellow shark-like teeth and blood is used to paint on their menacing smiles, and the animals are terrifying mutant-like beasts. “Drive-by Media” sounds like circus music in parts, but is not the kind of music we associate with the circus, as its brightness is clearly tarnished by a darker tone. The result is an incredibly weird, yet wonderful track that would fit well into a soundtrack of a Tim Burton movie. “Silver Dollar Swagger” begins with a funeral march instrumentation with drums that sound like a cannon and gun salute. Like “Witch Hunt” the moody atmosphere is torn apart by jazzy piano, but this time the effect isn’t disturbing - it’s damn catchy! Complex, chaotic, dark, and wickedly good, Blue State is an outstanding effort that contains no weak tracks. From the moment it begins it is obvious that it is remarkably different, yet it should still appeal to a broad range of piano lovers; just don’t expect any light piano tinkering.

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Josiah Wordsworth

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