Sal Cataldi's TWO BASS HIT Quartet to Release Genre-Bridging Debut Album

Bassists Tomaso Semioli and Jeff Keithline join drummer Michael Drazen on the seven-track set.

By: Rachel Stone Aug. 25, 2026

Spaghetti Eastern Music, the shape-shifting venture led by NYC & Hudson Valley-based guitarist Sal Cataldi, has re-emerged, this time as a spinoff quartet, TWO BASS HIT, with a new album showcasing the exploratory spirit of the guitarist and his collaborators. The seven-track collection, also titled TWO BASS HIT, was recorded during a video live stream at the Green Kill Sessions in Kingston, N.Y., in March 2026. It will be available as a digital-only release on August 28 via Bandcamp, Spotify, and other streaming platforms.

Two Bass Hit's sound is the product of the collective's love of Miles Davis's early 70s electric period, Bill Laswell's dub explorations, the post-jazz atmospherics of ECM Records' guitarists, Terje Rypdal and Steve Tibbetts, Brian Eno and David Byrne's world music collaborations, and Khruangbin's calming, psychedelicized Eastern modal music.

The foundation of several of the tunes comes from the introductory lines composed by electric bassist Tomaso Semioli, powered by the downtempo grooves and shimmering, jazzy accents of drummer Michael Drazen. Over these, Cataldi builds multiple layers of atmospheric loops, melodies, and solos that push the tune's initial melodic and rhythmic foundations into new territories. The guitarist utilizes an arsenal of tastefully deployed effects, including a DL-4 looper/delay, various fuzz tones, ring modulator, harmonizer, reverb units, an Ebow sustainer and arpeggiator, and, on one memorable track, an electric sitar. Acoustic bassist Jeff Keithline lays down grooves that complement and extend Semioli's, on tunes that become largely improvisational as they unfold. Like Cataldi, Keithline uses numerous effects to craft otherworldly sounds, both plucked and bowed, which aren't often heard emanating from an acoustic bass. Importantly, the album was a live mix from the soundboard, later mastered by Cataldi. 'We know it's not perfect sonically,' says the guitarist, 'but we prize the feel and passion over high fidelity in a live recording.'

Cataldi, Semioli and Drazen have been performing together for the past decade in various aggregations, including Spaghetti Eastern Electro Dub, an exploratory post-rock quartet with a Middle Eastern fusion flavor whose 2025 disc, Live at Green Kill Sessions, received high praise from outlets including Electronica UK, NYC's WFMU and WFUV, Chronogram, Obscure Sound, Berlin-On Air and others. The trio was recently invited to perform at Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, the former site of Woodstock '69. Cataldi and Keithline first worked together in a trio that composed the soundtrack for filmmaker Charles Dennis' 2024 short film, Drone Girl.

Recommended Listening

'Foster's Phunk' – A high-octane, funk-fired opener with a beat dedicated to the drummer who powered Miles Davis' most electrified bands in the early 1970s, Al Foster. At the midpoint, the guitarist's organ pad loop elicits a runaway rock beat for the bass duo, the ground for an extended psych-fired soloing.

'Going to Goa' – Cataldi puts down the Strat and picks up an electric sitar for the first half of this jazzy opus, a slow, bluesy eastern flavor, with a launch motif based on the riff from Alice Coltrane's 'Journey to Satchidananda.'

'(Don't Fear) The Weeper' – A wistful blue ballad, a real weeper, with the guitarist's Ebow sustained loops and volume swell-driven melody dancing with Keithline's descending bowed bass line. Cinema noir music.

'The Star That Forgot to Shine' & 'Dance of the Vampire Cheerleaders' – A longer piece sliced in two for the album, a moody ballad at first that becomes a hard blues featuring a fuzz-wah solo from Keithline.

'Augustus Einstein' - Semioli's dub reggae riffage morphs into extreme Krautrock on the album's longest, a 10+ minute romp.

Credits

The album was produced by Sal Cataldi and co-produced by Tomaso Semioli. Live sound by Scott Kent. Curation and video by D.B. Schell. Remix and mastering by Sal Cataldi at Sonic Garden, Saugerties, NY.