Bassist, singer, songwriter, and sound editor for films, Kira Roessler is best known for filling the bass position in Black Flag in their post-My War stretch and for forming dos, the two-bass duo with Mike Watt. But she also released a sharp eponymous solo debut in 2021, and now she’s following it up with Enigma, which is available July 10 on vinyl, compact disc, and digital through ORG Music. Assisting her in this effort are brother Paul Roessler as co-producer and instrumentalist, and Petra Haden as backing vocalist. The bass is large, the songs are highly accomplished, and the emotional thrust is mature but defiant.
The era of Black Flag that featured Kira Roessler on bass is the storied band’s most contentious (setting aside Greg Ginn’s numerous 21st-century lineups, of course). Much of this is directly due to Henry Rollins’ transformation of the singer’s role in the band, but there are also those who champion or disdain the musical shift toward a bruising, hard rock-sludgy metal approach. I’m not one of the naysayers, having long considered Kira’s playing crucial to the Black Flag’s success in studio and live (as documented on Live ’84 and Who’s Got the 10 1/2?).
Even better was dos, her bass partnership with Mike Watt, a project that went a long way in broadening the musical landscape of the underground far beyond the rock paradigm. Kira’s first solo LP did something similar in boundary-pushing terms, and without losing a handle on the best qualities of rock and pop.
Enigma continues the march of growth. Her vocals throughout the album are pretty but substantial and without strain. There’s a touch of jazz singing in her lines, and it’s miraculously unaffected. Her bass is prominent in the mix, but there’s no grandstanding as the playing is always expressively functional and properly weighted with the drums.
To say Enigma is bass-driven is fair, but the instrumentation strengthens the impression of a band at work, with consideration given to the studio process of getting there. Guitar is part of the scheme in opener “Peas,” but then there’s a big shift to keyboards that cultivates a distinctiveness across the LP’s dozen tracks. The total expands to 14 on the CD and digital download.
There are a lot of positives as this grower of an album unfolds. There’s an instrumental jazziness that complements Kira’s vocals, there’s an appealing focus to the arrangements as Enigma sounds like a properly conceived full-length record, and there’s a consistency that accentuates the whole rather than an accumulation of standouts and lessers.
The quality of Enigma’s late tracks, particularly “Kill Him” and “Wild Card,” lends balance to a long album (especially when including the bonuses). Maybe the most curious (and fun) cut on the album is a buoyant rethink of the Ginn-Rollins composition “Drinking and Driving” from Black Flag’s final studio album In My Head. This is an out-of-nowhere integration of past achievements into the now rather than resting on laurels. It enhances a highly personal artistic statement from Kira Roessler.
GRADED ON A CURVE:
A-
