Editrix is the contempo power trio of guitarist-vocalist Wendy Eisenberg, drummer Josh Daniel, and bassist Steve Cameron, and with the July 25 release of The Big E, their third full-length record is complete. It’s the band’s first for Joyful Noise Recordings after two for Exploding in Sound Records, and it maintains the precise intensity and elastic heaviness of their prior efforts while marking progress in development. If mathematically progged-out and with occasional raucous outbursts, The Big E is also a fun album to experience. Experimental intricacy is rarely this engaging.
Before there were any Editrix LPs, there was a cassette of four songs titled “Talk to Me,” issued by the band in 2019, the release still available via Bandcamp. Next came Tell Me I’m Bad on vinyl and digital in 2021 and then Editrix II: Editrix Goes to Hell the following year. A few years have elapsed since, but as The Big E unwinds, the ten songs evince no traces of rust.
Eisenberg and Daniel have remained busy musically as Cameron focused on scholarly pursuits. Within the community that’s clued in to such happenings, Eisenberg has the highest profile, playing in the Bill Orcutt Guitar Quartet and numerous other outfits along with delivering key contributions to the albums of others (e.g. Jon Irabagon’s Server Farm earlier this year) and her own solo efforts, with records released on Tzadik (The Machinic Unconscious, 2018), Ba Da Bing! (Auto, 2020), Out of Your Head (Bloodletting, 2021), and American Dreams (Viewfinder, 2024).
Daniel plays in Landowner, with that band’s most recent set, Escape the Compound, issued in 2023 on Born Yesterday Records (his earlier bands include Hot Dirt and The Leafies You Gave Me). Daniel has stayed back in Massachusetts, where Editrix was formed, as Eisenberg and Cameron have moved to New York City.
The new album’s opening title track is a lithe gallop augmented with amp roar and angular stabs as Eisenberg’s vocal flows and soars atop. Next is “The Queen,” which is more of a groover, but chunkier and with touches of math. Halfway through, the guitar just explodes all over the place, with some swell metallic bombast to follow. It’s notable that prolific technical death metal musician and producer Colin Marsdon recorded, mixed, and mastered The Big E.
“What’s Wrong” reinforces the album’s structural robustness; it’s an honest-to-goodness song amongst the weaving patterns and shredding. “The Jackhammer” is exactly what its title suggests, although there’s also a trampolining flow that gets honed into some kinetic forward movement. “Another World” starts out less hectic as Daniel works the kit with finesse. By the cut’s ending, the band has worked up a considerable groove. At over five minutes, “No” swings back into the metallic zone while impressively avoiding the predictable.
Often, where Editrix is heading is quite surprising. “Something Sweet” gets into the neighborhood of the funky with nary a hint of stylistic strain. Cameron’s bass and Eisenberg’s lilting vocals are the standout elements in “Real Fire,” while “Flesh Debt” is a sweet tension buildup that, instead of merely erupting, gives way to more expert string-slinging from Eisenberg. The big blast doth come, however, and then more arithmetic.
Closer “Slight Return” is the record’s longest track and also its ultimate standout; it’s everything The Big E has to offer inside one piece, but of course, getting there with Editrix is more than half the fun.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
