Bemused

Christian Seith moved to Denver from Washington, D.C., two years ago. After playing on his own for a bit, he teamed up with several Lamont School of Music cohorts to form Bemused. Seith, who wrote all of the songs on the act’s debut, is a decent writer and has a husky vocal delivery, but the real draw here is the instrumentation, from the ringing tones of Mark Clifford’s vibraphone to Aaron Hochberg’s Fender Rhodes, which fills out “There You Are” and the sparkling instrumental “Aspirations.” “Destination,” meanwhile, with its loosely crashing drums, vibraphone, acoustic strumming and upright bass, is a bit disorienting at first, but after a minute or so, the band locks into a fluid groove, one of many such moments on Departed.