photo by Valerie Paulsgrove

Height with Friends is the extended vision of Daniel Walton Keech. Exuding a sense of community that portrays an energy constantly transcending from one artist to another, Height somehow manages to make us all a part of it.

While Height has been putting out albums on various labels since 2000, it wasn’t until 2009’s Baltimore Highlands, released via Wham City Records, that the name was changed from just Height to Height with Friends. The change of moniker is a representation of the endlessly changing hands that have been involved in this project, with the most recent incarnation including Mickey Free, Gavin Riley, Emily Slaughter, and Travis Allen.

While Height’s hip hop influences deriving from late 80’s production and storytelling are evident, it’s his surroundings and peers that have most shaped his output. One of Dan Deacon’s first tours was with Height, while Wye Oak contributed to his last album. I’ve seen Height up front during a Dope Body set bobbing his head, while “Dream Don’t Always Come True” calls to mind a Pontiak show. Dan’s reach is broad, as is Bed of Seeds.

Press

“Baltimore Highlands is superb, with its eerie sampling of an ascending whistle-tone that sounds like some sort of ethereal air strike horn.  Listening closely, your mind settles on images of the bombed-out rowhouses dotting blighted, decaying areas of the city and the cut becomes a tragic ode to escaping urban decay.  The first single off the album, “The Woods,” with its choppy, beat-box-driven collage of sounds is pure magic.   “Woods Reprise” follows later in the album with a meatier, deliciously electro post-script.

The highlights of the album are undoubtedly the two closing tracks “Standing Up Asleep” and “Cold and Shaken.”  The former’s warm crackle is hazily nostalgic, recalling at once an antique gramophone and a blazing, wood-fueled fire, both accompanying late night reflection and poetics.  The latter is a rich tapestry of samples, a foreboding torment, peppered with punchy horns, synths, guitars, the works (even crediting “orchestra stabs” in the liner notes).” – Greg Szeto, Aural States

“Baltimore area rapper, Height (w/friends), brings tight samples, beats, and lyrics back to indie rap. Part of Dan Deacon’s Wham City scene, Height delivers his raps through deliberate pacing of his words on Baltimore Highlands. I don’t have much to describe them other than I can’t stop playing this album. I get reminded of Why? and the Beastie Boys (obvious white rappers comparison here) with the way the whole album comes together, a definite old-school throwback. I’ve been waiting for something new on the hip hop tip for quite some time and as you’ll see with, “The Woods,” the music on this album is a treat to the ears.” - Weekly Tape Deck