Produced by Andy Catlin of Strutt Studios and released on the Strutt Records label, The Universe and Dr. Kaiser is a highly decorated affair featuring a wide cast of Kalamazoo musicians contributing a vast array of instrumentation to the focused and concisely written songs of Grant Littler (whether he is Dr. Kaiser or the Universe or something else altogether is unclear), making this record both catchy and trippy, never muddled by the high quantity of sounds surrounding the tunes.

The record opens with the titular track, fading in with a thick but gentle sheet of breezy sonic wash which comes and goes in various shapes and sizes throughout the entire record.  This smoothly transitions into a mellow song with a pleading melody and metaphysical, perhaps even cosmic, lyrics.  The following number, “Whirrings,” follows in similar fashion to the opener, but a big curve ball is thrown with the distorted country rock riffs and down home, done wrong lyrics of “Tight as a Can”, with a scorching electric “geetar” solo to boot!

“Sales Convention ’88” goes further into unpredictability with a creepy, manipulated spoken word intro, only to shift into a pretty song with lyrics that, while cryptic, are sang very personally and passionately, injected with a genuine sense of loss and longing.

Julia Toro steps up to the mic on “When You Hold Me” with a pop melody for the ages.  Prominent pedal steel pushes things further into the country western leanings that are present throughout the record.  The next piece, “Georgia Honey Roll”, is the most stripped down and subdued moment, staying almost entirely in acoustic guitar territory with cello and synth occasionally joining. It is here that Littler finds a simple but slightly haunting melodic vocal hook that feels as though it’s been waiting to be discovered for a long time.

The album ends with “Chain”, a piece which fully blossoms into the highly drawn out, spacious ambience that the entire record has threatened to do all along yet was always reined back in by Littler staying song-focused.  At this point, it’s a welcome trip-out to conclude a strongly crafted and executed batch of ditties brought to us by some of Kalamazoo’s finest.

Musicians appearing on The Universe and Dr. Kaiser:

Grant Littler – guitar, voice

Andy Catlin – keyboards, clarinet, voice, drums

Graham Parsons – voice, lap steel

Julia Toro – voice

Adam Danis – voice

Tod Klosterman – bass

Bill Winks – pedal steel

MW – moog, BirdWind tape

Fiona Dickinson – cello

Matt Maier – electric guitar

Mike Savina – tambourine