“leans into sophisto-pop shaded indie pop noir, careening from rootsy swagger into bursts of digital space jazz and ambient funk.” - Aquarium Drunkard, Best of 2025

“dizzying” - Flood Magazine

“beautiful” - BBC6 New Music Fix

“incredible” - Foxy Digitalis

“a very unique gem” - Everything Is Noise

“a journey into a mystic, far-off land, one where jazz and Americana get refracted into new shapes.” Bandcamp, New & Notable

“Like a film noir fever dream, this record sounds like an urban folk record, with woozy smokey saxophone spilling out into the streets and the avant garde experimentalism of Arthur Russell.” - Limited Addition Records

“4.5*…an immersive, opiate score, over which Birnbaum growls, slinks, clatters, and mumbles” - Allmusic.com Editor’s Choice, Best of 2025

“The record beautifully drifts in and out, and, like its protagonist, seems unconcerned with deadlines or run times, simply walking the streets and taking whatever characters or adventures come to mind” - PopMatters, Best Folk Albums of 2025

“Gabriel Birnbaum leads his long-running ensemble into new territory, where folk merges with ambient jazz and experimental textures, each moment flickering like the reflections of streetlights on rain-soaked pavement. “ - Twisted Soul

“These are songs free from traditional structures but never sprawling. Ambiguous and often hypnotic but governed by linear motion.” - Various Small Flames, Best of 2025

“A touch of Yankee Hotel Foxtrot-era Wilco, mixed with the jazzy flourish of the percussion, walking basslines, and an underlying sense of unnerving dread…this shift for Wilder Maker already feels like the start of an already intriguing band’s most enticing chapter so far.” - For the Rabbits

“unreels like a film noir or pulp novel set to song. Jazzy undertones accent the scenes, from haunting sax riffs to slack rhythms, while the gruff narrator chronicles what amounts to dark night of the soul. It’s a a challenging listen that’s well worth one’s time, with hard-boiled imagery punctuated by the grotesque; imagine a Sam Spade story from Flannery O’Connor’s pen.” - The Old Grey Cat