A lot has gone down since 2017’s SMoKE DoGS, but the number remains the same: 310 is an equation that solves itself, its variables of experience compacted into a single elegant proof. While recent incarnations of the project have roped in selected guest talents, this time Joseph Dierker and Tim Donovan return to their roots as a duo. As such, they understand that itineracy is a way of life, a means not to an end but to another beginning.

“Leave To Remain” is their thesis statement, “Mound Visit” their open-ended conclusion. Between them, a narrative emerges that is at once familiar to longtime listeners and a departure from the expected. Over this congregation, a trinity of drums, guitar, and bass continues its reign, dangling from the periphery of tangibility like a choir of reason. Between them are “Subway Knives” and “Banned From Butoh.” Combined, they form a backward glance into the beatless noir of 2001’s Nothing To See Here. Cinematic scratching outlines a crime scene so familiar, we already know the victim and perpetrator before we open our eyes to its forensic details. Rhythms are everywhere. Whether found in the looping of birdsong or the whisper of a passing train, they kiss the ground with hints of traction. Whatever form they take, they remind us to keep moving, searching for something that can be heard, felt, and remembered.

In a world where politics are a rescue vehicle that seems perpetually on its way to rescue anyone but us, 310 throw us a lifeline we can trust. Hours of care have gone into weaving it, one fiber at a time—a reminder that we are made whole by the fragments we collect. DoPING CHIEF, then, is more than a bend in the road; it’s an EP that knows its motives intimately. Here is the language of restoration when only brokenness speaks.