Daring Adventures

STEPHEN MALKMUS WILL always be most associated with the skewed, slacker indie-rock sound he spearheaded — and, if we’re being honest, more or less perfected — with Pavement in the 1990s. But while that outfit called it a day as a recording unit at the close of the 20th century, the now 54-year-old singer, songwriter and guitarist has never stopped creating music.

Since then, Malkmus has released a steady stream of records with his band the Jicks, as a solo artist and as a collaborator with acts like Silver Jews. And in the past three years alone, he’s unveiled a trio of wildly divergent albums: 2018’s electric-guitar-centric Jicks effort, Sparkle Hard, 2019’s synth-and-drum-machine-drive Groove Denied, and now, the hushed Traditional Techniques (Matador/Domino). This newest release is another left turn for Malkmus. On it, he presents a set of songs focused squarely on his voice and 12-string guitar picking, and adorned with all manner of non-Western instruments from the Balkans, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Persia, including the stringed rabab, the flute-like kaval, and percussive instruments like the udu and daf.

Which, to a degree, explains, traditional instruments. And maybe we’re using them to come up with something new.”