In one of the notes Chuck Roth wrote about watergh0st songs, he warns that the songs change every time he plays them, meaning they are not static, but rather representations of the moment, living beings that cannot be caged in an idea. It seems naive—after all, shouldn’t all music be like that, always different, at every moment, with every action?—but it is related to Chuck Roth’s origins, trained in classical guitar, where freedom can enter into the interpretation, but not into the structure. So when he visits us, these songs—and others—will exist as long as that idea lives.
Edited by Bill Orcutt’s Palilalia, watergh0st songs and Chuck Roth are one of the events of 2025. It is not the debut album, as there was Document 1 on Relative Pitch Records before, but there is a crystal-clear desire in watergh0st songs that rises above everything we can hear before and after it. A beautiful demonstration of very beautiful songs, in which fluency, cadence, and punctuation are displayed with a sense of naturalness. This idea of naturalness, of natural music, elevates the very construction of the songs. When one hears the idea of guttural music, there is an association with noise, which is free and furious and also arises side by side with noise. Chuck Roth offers something different, while maintaining the origins of these associations.
The songs we have heard from him so far are pure and reflect someone without masks. Voice and guitar flow in parallel, the lyrics hide small narratives that sound like short stories. Music that leaves no room for exaggeration, because the exaggeration is in its very existence. It is perfect, and that perfection is haunting. How could this be any better? From experience, live, the whole thing will only get better. Expect the best in the world on stage.
AS

Musician and poet from Lisbon, born in the 1990s. Raised in the multi-polarization of the capital’s SCENE, open to a wide range of repertoires, from pop to noise, through which he honed his techno-lyrical manipulation techniques. His artistic resume highlights his collaborative work with the collective he is part of, Cafetra Records (Putas Bêbadas, Maria Reis, Sallim, and Éme), and his solo composition work.