You don’t expect Chuck Roth’s music to have lyrics. The Brooklyn-based guitarist’s experimental style and broad range of techniques, especially on his latest album Texture Songs, occupy plenty of speaker space, even when the music is spacious and minimalist, so the introduction of softly sung words is surprising. Take the gnarly shards of ‘Hometown Hero’, a piece built on observations of a changing New York City, changes clearly not all welcomed. The playing is sharp and muscular in places, with heavy strums and mini high-string flexes that bring plenty of urgency. The vocals add something of a pulse, a beating heart to the sound, without demanding too much attention.
Roth has an interesting view of vocals, looking to use them to ‘decorate the border of…

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