A Dry Spell

This is a post that made a little more sense back when I first started writing it, but there was a bit of a shake up through January so it ended up being a little later and isn't as applicable anymore, so take the next section with a big 'ol asterisk! January is a pretty dry season for any new media, there's never many new bits of music, film or really much of anything coming out - so here's a couple newer things that have come my way.

First things first we have Thorne - an old friend of the blog under his old moniker of Magna, a name he has since retired. And it's not without reason - I had a conversation with him a long while ago now and the long and short of it is that he feels he's sort of outgrown it, which I can sympathise with, as much as I love my Fake Internet Name™ I must admit there are times where it feels a little immature. There's a marked change in sound and visuals as well to go with the new name, even in the Magna days the visual direction was on point and that has not changed here - now with an injection of leet speak and liberal use of Helvetica to compliment that.

It's been a long time coming for me to talk about Thorne (and if you're reading I'm sorry it's taken this long!), but I do try and keep tabs on what former blog staff and acquaintances are up to these days. So let's talk these new sounds then - we're still in in the sphere of House, but it's a far cry from the filter house of old. There's an undeniable Burial influence on the pitched and chopped vocal samples that form the backbone of Where It's Bright, and the accompanying visualizer echoes the Vaporwave videos of old in parts.

thorne ☁ · Where It's Bright

There are times where it reminds me a fair bit of Machine Girl as well, albeit a much less frantic version. Machine Girl's work is more jumped up footwork for the most part, whereas tracks like Much 2 Love feel positively sedate in comparison. It's not an unfitting comparison on the visual front either, though Machine Girl's art is usually a little more psychedelic on the whole, there's a hefty chunk of Vaporwave and general early 00's internet culture in there as well, as is the case with Thorne. I am keeping tabs on the project and am interested to see where it goes, his most recent contribution being a (fake) BBC Essential Mix from 2003 - calling back to the roots with Crydajam's If You Give Me The Love I Want opening the proceedings.

thorne ☁ · More 2 Love

The other example I have for you today is something a little different from my usual affair. There was a time where I was militantly against any and all things pop (take a peek back into the archives to see that!), and that was true for most of the other blog writers at the time as well. I do still have some holdout opinions from that time - I still maintain that Calvin Harris' early work is a lot more fun and interesting than the soulless stuff he'd go on to make - but the reality is that I've loosened up with time, partly an age thing and partly due to expanding my musical horizons over the years as well.

What I've come to realise in that time is that my hate for the radio wasn't for the content, but the fact that it's the same pool of 5-8 songs on repeat (admittedly slightly hypocritical if you've seen some of my library!). Hell, I'll even hold my hands up and admit some of the stuff folk like The Weeknd have put out is incredibly catchy, especially in the synth department, but has also been ruined by sheer overexposure. All that to say we'll be taking a look at Will Weinbach next, and more specifically his latest release.

It's certainly the kind of thing I wouldn't just stuble across in my usual music explorations, the algorithm has been both a blessing and a curse in cases like that. But - Will was kind enough to ping me a press release around that time so I had a vague idea of what to expect going in. The intro sets things up as I mentioned above, it's potentially a little too in that mainstream vein for my taste (but I am willing to admit there is also that lingering bias as I mentioned above). Having said that, I was pretty glad to have stuck it out, come the full introduction around the 1 minute mark things get very interesting indeed, surprisingly heavy I'd say as well given what came before.



Naturally, I checked out a couple other of his tracks as well just to get a feel for things, Safe And Sound being my pick of the bunch. I have a well documented love for all things slow jams so you won't be surprised on that front from the intro - those piano stabs and handclaps taking me right back to 2010 in the best way possible. Will's productions typically hover just under the 3 minute mark, in this case I wish there was a little more to get my teeth into though, it carries a nice energy. Even with the very small pool of tracks Will has out right now, it's clear that he has a talent for this kind of sound, I'd be interested in seeing him tackle some longer tracks and maybe explore a little more variety, but that's hardly a complaint when the man only has a handful of releases right now.



And that'll be all for now, a bit of a departure from my usual I know, but I do have a buncha posts on the backburner to go, including what I got in the first of 2023's Bandcamp Fridays. A busy couple of weeks on the radar at the minute but I'll try and get some things out here and there - until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Peaks & Valleys

Rochelle Blumenfeld - Desert Canyon (2015)

What a week of ups and downs it has been, seems like there's always something waiting just around the corner, for better or worse. Still, given me a chance to catch up on some writing, which I am sorely behind on. the list of post ideas keeps on growing, but I'm going to try and schedule them out over this weekend - bit of a change from my off-the-cuff mode of operating I'd been using for a while! But let's pin that for now and talk tunes. Going a little thematic with this one for the selections, let's go.

Kicking off with some of Ben Prunty's solo work. I just missed a January sale on his Bandcamp page unfortunately, but they're on my radar now at least. Fans of Prunty's suitably spacey OST for FTL will find themselves in similar company here - Dusty Road opening with those lone, almost chiptune stabs. It soon evolves though, and by the 1 minute mark is quite similar to some of the Battle themes from FTL, building to an almost post-rock style crescendo come the 2 minute mark. I'm doing the track a bit of disservice by giving it the bullet point treatment, give it a spin to get the full effect.



Taking a trip back to 2007 next - it's been a little while since I did some nostalgia-posting about the days of electro house but here we are again! Very occasionally a track will come back up out of the blue and just blindside me, I was listening to Ed Banger's Ménage-À-Trois mix CD from Mixmag earlier this week, which pretty much did that on every single track. The real highlight was a little something from PUZIQUe, a short-lived duo of Boys Noize and D.I.M. They had a few killer remixes out around that time but I had pretty much forgotten about 'em in all honesty, until Don't Go Reminded me. A real tune, a shining example of the sound a li'l teenage me would go mad for, much like Surkin's White Knight Two later in this same compilation. Annoyingly a but tricky to get a legit stream of, so I'm splitting the difference once again - one legit, one knock-off soundcloud upload.

Mr. Jonas · PUZIQUe - Don't Go (Original Mix)

And finally, a little something that I picked up a while ago but just plain didn't mention. Not for any particular reason, I like to hold onto things every now and then for occasions like this. Astral Engineering is an alias of Simon Rees that's one of those delightfully obscure tales of electronic music - self-releasing 2 albums in 1993, then disappearing for nearly 20 years before coming back with new material in the 2010s. Music For Insomniacs gathers some of the 90's material that was never before released. It's a nice experience in all, reminds me a bit of Alter Ego's debut from 1994 in terms of it being one big continuous techy ambient jam. Drifting sets up that vibe nicely in all it's spacey, dubby glory. The end's a little abrupt as it's supposed to mix into the next track, I highly recommend the whole thing if you need a little bit of a midweek float. You can get the album for free if you'd like to boot.



And that'll about wrap it up for today as I said I have a few more ideas in the pipeline that I'm going to try and get out soon enough, but for now I hope you've enjoyed this slightly eclectic selection. I'll be back soon enough with more but until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Feelin' Festive

John Everett Millais - Christmas-Eve (1887)

Let's talk the state of Christmas Music. A good chunk of it is supremley overplayed (my deepest sympathies for those of you in retail or simialr spaces) - be it Macca farting about on a synthesizer to the omnipresent Carey, you've heard it all a million times. Last Christmas is pretty great still, but I do have a love of 80's synthpop so there is some bias at play there. All of this to say let's have a look and see if we can't come up with some alternative tracks from my collection.

Some more from Bonuts to start with, I've been hanging onto this one for a while for just such an occasion. Christmas Morning is, much like the rest of Bonuts, a short, sweet (if a little raw) treat. Starting off surprisingly pschedelic with a wave of hazy noise, that soon gives way to some lovely keys drizzled with distortion. Sprinkle a nice beat on the backend of it and you have your first of many Bonuts. The things comes out feeling a lot like some of FlyLo's demos, especially with the sloooooow doooooown outro.



And what's Christmas Morning without some Sledding eh? By comparison this one shares much more similarities with the actual Donut County OST, following that tried and tested formula of guitar based noodling that gave the original that fittingly indie feel. Surprisingly frantic in parts, Sledding feels very much more fleshed out tham much of the other content here on Bonuts, especially in comparison to Christmas Morning. There's a lot of layers to get stuck into here that I've only really come to appreciate on repeated headphone listens, a lovely little addition to the Bonuts list.



I am admittedly strethcing the definitions of 'Christmas Song' a little, but that's part of the fun! That's going to continue for a little while longer with the next track I have here, a little bit from Susumu Yokota's Love Or Die. The first thing you'll probably notice about Lov Or Die is that all the track titles are especially wordy - some of them even read like cliché light novel titles, but that's something that Yokota only did for this album. Look beyond the titles though, and there's lots of lush electronics to get stuck into here - A Song Produced While Floating Alone On Christmas Day being the one in question here. I just adore it, that main synth melody is a total earworm and has this lovely warmth to it.



Let's get a little serious for the last one with some actual, factual Christmas song content. Released as part of Röyksopp's 'Track Of The Month' series some 12(!) years ago now, it's one of the first tracks that came to mind when thinking up content for this list. Hailing from that Junior / Senior era of their sound, the ToTM series has a nice balance of poppy moments and the more subdued, alomst ambient they;d explore on Senior. And this track is a prime example of that: it builds slowly over the first minute and a half before a simple, almost whispered "Happy Christmas" ushers in a blizzard of electronics that is just divine. This is Röyksopp doing what they do best.

Röyksopp · Le Cantique de Noël

And that'll about wrap it up for now, hope you've enjoyed some of these alternate offerings free of twee sentimentality and overplayed guff. We've only really scratched the surface this time around, but that just means more to go at come next year! And I'm sure there's plenty more to discover between now and then as well. On that note, I'll be back soon enough with more but until next time - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

Break Time

Had this post waiting to go for a while, I'm about wrapped up for the year, so I figured I'd kick back with some fittingly foodie tracks. Tracks I could have sworn were on Bandcamp or otherwise readily available... only to find out they weren't. Well, kind of, I've managed to work around it. Still, wouldn't be 2022 without some last minute disruptor to a plan would it? Let's get into it.

Ralph Goings - Coffee and Donut (2005)

Kicking off with the initial inspiration for this post, the soundtrack for Donut County. I originally wanted to post Slackers and maybe a couple others, only to find my memories of a Bandcamp release were apparently wrong. However, there IS an album of bonus cuts that is on BC that I can use instead. Bonuts carries with it the charming indie vibes of both the game and its OST - especially here, but that's no surprise as it features the other half of the OST and Game's team after all. Cruising is a little hot compared to the main OST, feeling more like an unmastered demo in parts with the bassy parts almost clipping. Still, it's a great listen, even if you're not familiar with the game, a lovely if a little short number.



I thought I'd pair some of Coffee Talk's OST with the above to keep that food theme going, but once again it seems my memories of a bandcamp release were wrong, and I had a heck of a time finding some sources for this one that weren't Youtube. Coming from that era where a YT playlist from the devs was the only way to listen to the OST outside of grabbing it from Steam or whatever. The full ost is pretty hefty, 27 tracks with an average runtime of around 6 mins a piece. It can get a little cliché in parts as well, it leans heavily on that 'lo-fi beats' angle that was again quite popular some years ago. But as with all things, there are some real nice bits here and there - thankfully I was able to find one of the tracks I had in mind on the publisher's soundcloud of all places. Tenderhearted stood out from the title alone and fast became one of the standout pieces from the OST for me, it sets a lovely, delicate ambience.

Chorus Worldwide Games · Tenderhearted - Coffee Talk OST

Stretching the food angle a little bit for this last choice, but it is a game about farming (among other things) so I'd say it counts. Stardew Valley is an indie success story, and one that's well earned. Largely made by one person over the course of many years, it's a real passion project that you can almost feel the care and love that went into it. With updates over time the OST has hit 100 tracks so there's not shortage of tracks to get into. I've gone ahead and picked a couple favourites

The first thing that springs to mind with Stardew for me is the various Mine themes due to the sheer amount of time you can spend down there. They range from beautiful ambient to more upbeat tracks like the one I've chosen. Channeling its pixel art into the audio side, Icicles starts off with some characteristically bleepy stabs, but around the 40 second mark we get a beat and bassline introduced, quite heavy considering the rest of the OST! A nice but brief little number.



Rounding off with my original choice and probably my favourite track from the entire OST, Maru's Theme. This one could have honestly gone on the previous post, it's a lovingly crafted piece that feels oh so delicate. It's been a mainstay of my ambient playlists ever since it found its way into my collection with the rest of the OST. Simply wonderful, it even channels a little bit of Vangelis' Heaven And Hell as famously used as the theme to Sagan's Cosmos to my ears - fitting, given the title and all. Brief but ever so sweet, I'll catch myself rewinding this one for just one more run whenever it comes up.



And that'll be all for today - I should be back to a fairly regular schedule now that things have all been ironed out, maybe I'll even remember to do an NYE wrap-up or other seasonal post this year. At any rate, hope you've found some tracks to enjoy here, or even the games that the audio comes from too! I didn't really talk about the games themselves too much but I had fun with them all, give 'em a look if you're after something to play this winter. Until next time - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bug Testing

Hey all, another quick one to iron out some things (and also because I had some free time) - seems the ol' hype machine didn't archive the last post I did so I'm wanting to see if it was a one off or not, it has happened before but normally when I accidentally publish then un-publish a post which I didn't do last time. But enough of the boring technicals, let's have a look!

Alighiero Boetti - Bugs Bunny (1992)

Let's start with one entry I missed from my Friday scoops, a long lost Mitch Murder track that has resurfaced back on Bandcamp. Originally from 2013 from Mitch Directly and re-released on Mad Decent the year after, it is a proper vintage slice of synthwave, to the point where the Discogs page lists it as Electro/Disco as it was before the genre was really coined. Mitch's early sound here is still very much a love letter to the era, complete with fiery synth noodling solos. Perhaps a tad dated now as he's had 10 years to evolve his sound in the interim, but it's still a lovely listen, pop this one on to inject a bit of sunshine into your day.



A game I've slowly been getting worse at is pinning down where the songs playing are currently from - one of the pluses and downsides to shuffling everything is occasionally you get treated to something you'd long forgotten about. Such is the case here with the incredibly hard to google C/C compilation from Ghostlight. After spending some minutes flip flopping between it being some Flying Lotus B-side I couldn't remember or something off one of Nujabes' Hydeout compilations turns out it's one of two tracks I have from Hiroto Kudo, both from the two C/C compilations. I do remember the whole thing having this dreamy ethereal feel - usually staying in a sort of chillwave / downtempo valley with a touch of pop, but Only You is a little heavier than I recalled. Very nice though, one I might have to look into further in future.



It's been a long time since we've heard anything from the Au Revior Simone camp, every so often I'll fall back in with them and ache for more. I absolutely adored Move In Spectrums when it came out, and every so often it'll come out to play and I'll remember why all over again. This time around it's opening track More Than - it's been a while since I really sat and listened to it, the slow build is beautifully done for the album opener, I've been looping the final quarter over and over as of late, the cascade of synths and bombastic drum hits are lovely. It does seem to come to a sudden stop, but if you're listening to it in album format it's not long before you're swept into The Lead Is Galloping



And that'll about do it for now, slightly shorter than I would have liked but I had a small window to write this in (and I interested to see if it's archived as well, so less tracks makes sense). I'll be back soon enough wether it be bugged or not, it's just finding time to do it these days! Until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

Tracked Down - An Inbox Tale

Let me tell you all the tale of a bit of a wild experience that I had a couple of days ago. Enter James Varghese of Quiet Love Records, who if nothing else was absolutely resolute in getting in touch with me - going as far as to reach out on a whole bunch of platforms where I share the screen name (Which to his credit, he did apologise for it it came across as a bit weird - if you're reading James, don't worry about it, that's most of the reason I share the CVF name everywhere!). We eventually had a bit of back and forth on Twitter and I said I'd take a look over things when I had some time, and now is that time.

Further credit to James, he was also kind enough to get in touch with a ton of detail about what he's working on - All of which I imagine was in the original email that he sent but passed me by - that happens when you've ended up on a million different promo lists over the last decade or so). So for this next section I'll be cribbing a lot from the info he sent over to me. James in his own words is a "jazz bass player with a masters degree from the jazz school of Zurich turned pop bass player turned indie-producer turned founder of «Quiet Love Records» turned electronic music artist."

His first solo release is due out September 14th after a few years working on other projects in the background at Quiet Love, a release called Ambient 1, the result of a few years worth of tinkering. I'm a sucker for all things ambient anyway, and based on James' description (and some extra details that we'll get into a little later) it sounded very much what I could get into at the minute. I've had the pleasure of listening to the thing on a private Soundcloud playlist and it didn't take long to appeal - "Short and soft" is the descriptor I was given in the accompanying text, and sure enough the solitary tones of 222 fit that bill. A lush wave swoops in to join the lonely pulsar around the halfway mark, and after some time in the spotlight the two come together in harmony, if only for a moment or so.

You'll have to take my word on that one as you can't hear it (yet!), but that isn't the case with Juno Fades, which nicely sets me up to talk about the other bit of the promo text that piqued my interest. To quote James directly: "Most of it was recorded in the biggest synthesizer museum in the world here in Switzerland. It's called SMEM and is located in Fribourg." - which must be a dream come true for any kind of electronic musician or even if you have an interest in the gear in general - doubly so if you're into the archiving process as I am! If you're at all keyed up on your synths (no pun intended), you might have already clocked the Juno reference in the title there. I find it interesting to hear differing modern takes on ambient with this retro gear, I've loved the work of Oneohtrix Point Never for a long time, and his early work was full of downright gorgeous Juno 60 sounds, James' take on the other hand is a little... brighter I want to say, most prominently in the latter half where there's an explosion of triumphant brassy stabs. OPN's work has this decided melancholy to it, whereas Juno Fades feels a little more in the middle - befitting James' line from the description of the private playlist: "I often experience very ambivalent emotions. It’s never black or white."

James Varghese · Juno Fades

James' work also feels much more like a Jam session than OPN's work too - and I don't mean that as a knock, if anything it's befitting of his Jazz roots and, after all, I'd probably make the same kind of thing if I had access to rows and rows of weird and wondrous synths like that, and in fact I know that I did back when I was experimenting with my first ambient releases. There's a definite charm to the proceedings, no doubt helped by that background information. Final track Fairfield Rd. however, does remind me quite a bit of OPN's work - drenched in analog hum and with a wistful air - which tracks as its a tribute to the Street James used to live on in East London. I've been listening to a lot of Casiotone For The Painfully Alone recently and the execution of this one very much reminds me of that. They both share a real home made lo-fi feel, even something as simple as the sound of stopping the recording intruding adds a little something to it. Off the top of my head it feels a lot like Tonight Was A Disaster.

James Varghese · Fairfield Rd

Ambient 1 looks like its shaping up to be a lovely little record - as mentioned above this kind of sound is very much in rotation for me at the minute with Casiotone and friends. I appreciate the songs being short as well, last time I tried to explore some more ambient releases I ended up bogged down in a sea of releases ranging from 15 mins to a few hours long and found myself quickly burning out - much like how I feel about Boards Of Canada's more ambient pieces, sometimes short and sweet is better. I've also been working on finishing up the remnants of my own half finished EP from years ago, and hearing James' tale (and of course hearing the results) have given me a little kick to finish things up proper, I'll be sure to drop by when and if I finish it up fully. Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Find more from James and Quiet Love at:
James' Bandcamp
James' Soundcloud
James' Twitter
Quiet Love's Bandcamp
Quiet Love's Soundcloud
Quiet Love's Twitter

Like a Flashback

And odd sequence of events a couple days ago led to me getting back in touch with a bunch of old Ilictronix crew and friends - we did a little catchup here and there which was nice, we'd all fallen out of touch a long time ago. And that's not for any particular reason, more a case of us all having our own lives now (plus the US / Europe timezone divide between us doesn't help either). A lot of them are still making music so I figured why not take some time to look at them in more detail? After all, I've kept tabs on some of them but regrettably never really posted any so let's change that.

Enter Luin, those of you who have been around here for a long time may recognise the name Boba Fettuccini and their associated netlabel Power Glove Records. They were also part of the writing team way back when, we'd not always see eye-to-eye on all things (and to be fair, I was a bit of an obnoxious teen mad into Dubstep so understandable!) but I liked that, the beauty of the team back then was the variety we had elsewhere in our libraries beyond the uniting House that brought us here in the first place, I made tons of new discoveries that way.

Luin's work now is much more in line with how I remembered her non-House interests and contributions, a lot of Crystal Castles and the like. To quote her Discogs page: "Luin blends frank emotional honesty and existential dread with post-industrial, new wave and house influences". You need look no further than her latest Bandcamp offering, a 'live' version of Undead put together with bits and pieces from several live takes - don't let that description put you off, the finished piece is very clean. Luin totally nails the vibe outlined in her description, it feels very cinematic too, reminds me a lot of Gary Numan's Bed Of Thorns and some of the other tracks chosen for that GITS compilation. Though I must admit, Luin's has a more satisfying conclusion.



I mentioned this to her in our little exchange, but the aesthetics of her new work is on point as well, I have a weakness for Glitch anyway as its the kind of art I make already, but the use of it like here on Sync is beautifully done. On that point as well, something that really shines on these tracks is the sheer cathartic nature behind them - tracks like Sync exude this powerful, almost palpable rawness that I myself have tried to capture in the past. The rawness is compounded even more with the methodology behind this track, as noted on the Bandcamp page it was put together on a 24 hour turnaround.



And finally, Resigned To Rust, which plays out a little bit like a Freezepop track albeit with that now expected darkness behind it. Listening back to write about it for this post I get a little bit of an ADULT. feeling from the lyrical delivery to boot. It's great to see her still active after all this time, doubly so after following up on a bunch of artists we used to know and finding so many dead links or abandoned profiles. To quote a little bit from our exchange - she's out there 'making the music I always wanted to make but felt I couldn't'.



And that'll be all for now, I have might have another one of these to come yet so keep an eye out for that coming soon. In the meantime I hope you've enjoyed this little foray into the past and more importantly look forward to the future. Until next time, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Era

We're taking another deep dive into my digital archives this time with another visit to Echochamber's work - a very short lived project with only a few releases to their name (including one that used to be on bandcamp but no longer is). Today we'll be looking at their final offering, a 'compilation mixtape' called Era - don't let the album art fool you, this isn't a Vaporwave record. I've spent a lot of time with it recently, it's the kind of release that lends itself well to my kind of listening where I just hit shuffle and hold on tight. Let's take a look at some selections from it.

The reviews on the BC page both mention it being a lo-fi hip hop release, which is partially true, but don't lump this in with your dime a dozen YouTube producers of that kind of thing. Much like I'm Real, I'm Here that I've covered previously, it occasionally dips into more House style territory. Maybe it's just because I've been listening to a lot of Swayzak lately, but tracks like Iv feel like they are kind of in the same boat. It's a great atmosphere setter, the whole thing feels very handmade which I've come to really enjoy, a great contrast to my recent hi-tech postings.



I'm hopping around the tracklist here and my bias for the more downtempo side of things is very much influencing my choices here so bear that in mind. That's part of the appeal of this release for me though, from the bombastic trappings of Shimmering Black to the much more sedate bracketfive [low battery mix], this compilation covers a ton of ground in its 25 tracks. The lo-fi DIY feel really works here on bracketfive, that intro is delightfully fuzzy and makes for a very dreamy atmosphere.



Let's shine a light on the other side of the compilation now, heading into that hip hop direction. We're not doing a breakneck dive in though, I figure I'd bridge the gap a little bit, which I think Beyond The Yeb does very well indeed. It reminds me a fair bit of the kind of lounge-house that appeared on some of Guidance Recordings' compilations, Echochamber's work has a real ear for melodies which I think is really neat, helps to break that lo-fi cliché of it being 100% sample based. Speaking of, Beyond also breaks trend with my previous choices above, there's no looming analogue haze here and things don't sound super compressed - it was the right choice to make here, the clarity really lets the intricacies of this one shine and freshens up the tracklist nicely.



Let's finish that dive now with Mind Occure, we're back in compressed territory but it sounds just as great as ever. Bursting onto the forefront at around 15 seconds, the intro makes a very strong impression. I've not mentioned it as of yet, but a lot of the tracks on Era are fairly short which sort of goes hand-in-hand with the previously established 'indie compilation mixtape' style that it has, but its by far and away the most prominent here out of all my choices so far. Around the 1:47 mark, Mind Occure gets switched up, you can still hear its relation to the 'original' though - not content with just that, we get another switch up at 2:29, where the tune comes to a sudden stop and changes groove completely before fading out. This 'cobbled together' approach is charming, if a little jarring at first listen.



And finally, one proper lo-fi sample based tune for the road. Easily the most stereotypical lo-fi hip hop track on here, you've probably heard tunes like Rituals a million times before. And yet I can't deny that I have a fondness for them, despite being overplayed and all, sometimes a little dollop of somethin' like this just hits the spot. Echochamber's choice of sample here is on point, it has a really nice groove and it gets played with in interesting ways to keep it fresh. I can't really fault them for including this, given the sheer variety on show with the other tracks I've mentioned its not like it was a phoned in addition to pad out the runtime.



And that'll be all for today, hope you've enjoyed this little look into the archives with me, Era is an absolute bargain at $3, well worth picking up if you've enjoyed my brief overview today. Apologies for the slight delay, it's about this time of year we get busy in my line of work, and it's been the first proper 'return' to things for a couple of years so it's been pretty flat out. I've set aside some time to knock out a couple of posts this weekend though and I'll schedule them out as and when. But until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Days of Electropop

Feels like it's been a long time since I did my last Bandcamp Friday roundup post, I already had an idea of what I was gonna pickup for this one so it wasn't too much of a scramble to find somethings to get this time around. As the title says, this time I took a deep dive into the world of synth/electropop - every so often I'll get the itch (normally after revisiting some of my favourites like Röyksopp's Junior), and I took this opportunity to fully indulge.

Albrecht Behmel - Singer (2015)

Starting off with Freezepop again. I did mention this album not too long ago, but I ended up scooping it again digitally on Bandcamp as it came with some nifty bonus tracks, and Freezepop do a lovely thing where they include a PDF of the liner notes which I really appreciate. I'm going to echo what I said last time in that this album is markedly more mature sounding than the twee electroclash of earlier Freezepop (which isn't a criticism, long time readers will know I am an absolute fiend for kitschy electroclash of all kinds). That said, it still has it's moments that recall that slightly tongue-in-cheek sound of old, most prominent on Lose That Boy - it not only has that spoken-word style delivery of the Electroclash days but also features cheeky asides like "And not to be shallow or anything, but you are way cuter than him too" at the end of the second verse and "In all fairness, maybe you're a crappy girlfriend too. I don't know, I just met you" at the very end, which is a cute little bit of nostalgia.

Where the album really shines though is on those more contemporary tracks. Very much in the vein of Junior as mentioned in the opening lines, it's a very poppy approach that was in fashion at the time, one that I hoped would leak its way onto the radio what with the popularity of La Roux and company at the time. And that's really most of this album in a nutshell: it's full of great wordplay as most Freezepop releases are, backed with some real catchy melodies and I am very much back in love with it at the moment. It's been tricky to pick just one tune from here to summarise it, but I think Strange does a fantastic job - I could live in that chorus forever.



What would a list like this be without some Au Revior Simone? They always seem to appear whenever I take a trip into this sound, but their place is well deserved. After singing the praises of Move In Spectrums for so long I figured I'd jump back a little for this one. Still Night, Still Light still has some of the indie/folky trappings of their earlier work, but having said that the electronics have always been a constant, just be aware that this album is distinctly less electronic than Spectrums. My favourite feature of Au Revior Simone tracks is how they often feel very... DIY, for want of a better term - skeletal keyboards and plastic drums give the proceedings this cosy, indie feel. And that is very much on show here with Knight Of Wands, which I fell madly in love with years ago upon hearing those delicious pitch bends introduced around the 55 second mark.

It's been quite a while since we've heard anything from the Simone gals - they haven't released a full length since 2013 (14 if you count the remix album of Spectrums), but they did put out some solo singles on their Bandcamp in 2020, including a studio version for one of the tracks they performed on the Twin Peaks reboot, so there may still be hope yet. I'd love to have some more new material from them but I also know you can't force these things either. Until then, there's plenty to listen to as-is.



And finally, an addition that's been a long time coming - Young Ejecta (Formerly known as just Ejecta). I first found Young Ejecta when I went looking up Joel Ford when writing a post about Ford & Lopatin's Channel Pressure album (Ford & Lopatin also previously known as Games) and found it listed among the groups he's in alongside Leanne Macomber.

I wasn't entirely sure what to expect going in, Joel Ford has dabbled in many genres over the years, from the 80's inspired synthpop of the Ford & Lopatin project, to the full-on Vaporwave of the predecessor Games, even at times venturing into proper house territory. Dominae, the first album from (Young) Ejecta dwells in much the same space as the previous tracks in this post though in that it's straight up synthpop. Don't be put off by the cover, all of the covers for Ejecta releases feature a nude Leanne Macomber, Dominae is probably the safest of them all though - the sound isn't hard or edgy like the covers would suggest though. Leanne's soft vocals throughout make for a slightly dreamier experience than the other examples I've posted here, and once again it was hard to pick just one track to summarise the experience. After much back and forth I decided to go for the opening track Mistress, not only because it's a great intro tune but I think it nicely encapsulates the whole album. At the risk of sounding cliché, if you like the sound of this one you could happily pick up the rest of Dominae and not be disappointed. It's lovely and I plan on adding the rest of their releases to my collection soon enough.



And that'll be all for today, I've thoroughly enjoyed my dive back into the world of this sound, and I hope you have too. Each of these albums I've picked are all from around the early 10's which doesn't sound too far away but is fast approaching nearly 10 years ago which will never fail to rattle me a little. Still, I enjoy them quite a lot, part of me will always have an affinity for this sound that I like to treat myself to from time to time. I'll be back soon enough with more words and music for you all but until then - as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bite-sized Bits 09

Mary Pratt - Smears of Jam, Lights of Jelly (2007)

Another reminder for myself because if I've learned anything over the past year and a bit of Bandcamp Fridays is that wishlisting something to get 'soon' is quite often a lie. Still, here we have a recent addition to that ever growing list, the solo project(s) of Ken Tanaka of Hyakkei. Hyakkei were already on my wishlist of stuff to get as I felt like dipping my toes back into the post-rock world again, and another one I was kind of surpised to find on Bandcamp actually.

Discogs is a little misleading if you go to Ken's page - it doesn't list any of his four solo albums that you can find alongside Hyakkei's works. I checked them out expecting more good post-rock stuff, just solo, and I was half-right. Stealing a line from slightly stilted press piece on the official YT upload of this single - "... a sound approach such as post-rock and electronica, what comes to mind is a nostalgic and warm Japanese Landscapes." which is pretty dead on actually.

A mixture of acoustic and electronic a la some of The Flashbulb's stuff, it's a very pleasant listen. Really the closest comparison I could make would be the similar vibe that The Knife were rocking on their debut and on some of their soundtrack work; think tracks like 'Vegetarian Restaurant' but with a little more electronics going on. As you might have guessed from the title this one is very indulgent piece, loaded with anthemic guitar licks, it just absolutley screams 'indie'. Perhaps a touch generic, but I like it enough. To use the analogy I've mentioned before: sometimes you just need a bit of comfort food, and this is the audio equivalent of that for me.



-CVF

In The Queue

Mel Bochner - Rules of Inference (1974)

Hey all, just another quick post with a rundown of things that are as the title says, in my queue. Starting with a fairly recent addition - the Celebrating Aphex Twin show on BBC Radio 6 (That link should let you listen, but you might have to be in the UK though and sign in/up, but you can see the tracklist in text on the page - and it'll only be available for 20 days as of this post as well!) from a few days ago was pretty great and managed to squeeze a decent amount of variety in there beyond just back-to-back AFX.

An early highlight is Warrington-Runcorn New Town Development Plan with Gateway To The North. If the album art didn't already tip you off, this is more in the vein of Boards Of Canada than it is AFX - replacing the tinges of Americana that BoC with a full-on British version. I have to admit, based on the title of the album and everything else, it does come across as trying a little too hard at first - the tunes themselves are great though. When Gateway To The North gets going around the 30 second mark it's lovely - while it is evocative of BoC it doesn't completely rip them off, there are echoes of Oneohtrix Point Never's early work in there as well with the analogue arpeggio making up the main body, a little like the Tron Legacy soundtrack as well now I think about it. Annoyingly, it's one of those bandcamp releases that doesn't let you preview all of the tracks, but if the rest of it is anything like this I'm sure I'll love it.



Speaking of previews, I decided to check in with Ocoeur again after bringing him up not too long ago - today we're talking the upcoming LP from him called Connections. It's always interesting to see which tracks get chosen as previews for an album, they can change wildly in sound from one track to another and that goes double for the kind of electronic that N5MD usually works with. From the two preview tracks on offer: Opposite Sides and title Connections, the experience seems to be a lot more delicate than the earlier albums I have in my collection.

A marked movement away from the glitchy electronics of Light As A Feather, though still with a hint of that roughness of those previous releases as well (most prominently on the title track Connections). But that's not a complaint from me - Ocoeur's melodies remain as beautiful as ever on both the sample offerings here. I've gone with Opposite Sides as my pick as it very much feels like an intro track (though according to the page it's actually the second). At the risk of repeating myself from the previous paragraph, if the rest of the album is at all like the small glimpse we've been given so far, I will very much like it.



And finally returning to something a little more local with a bit more from Ceiling Demons. It's been a while since the last time but they've returned with a new full length slated for a little later this year. Perks of the job mean I've had the privilege of hearing the full thing, but the rest of you'll have to wait until the full thing comes out on the 22nd. Snakes & Ladders makes a strong impression from the get go with the folky All Let Go heading things up, reminiscent of an old drinking song, complete with violin accompaniment. It's not long before returning to more familiar Hip Hop ground on track 2, Let The Currents Carry You Home. With a slight Jazzy feel that reminds me of Weekend World-era E-Z Rollers (albeit with a slower tempo) and it's catchy shout along chorus continue that strong impression.

I'd say it's an emotionally charged record, but then again truth is that all the Demons' releases so far have been - for Snakes & Ladders this comes to a boil on Freedom Fighting Dystopia (which is also our first hearing of Lee "Scratch" Perry(!) on this record - more on that later), stripped back to a lone guitar and some frankly cathartic delivery, culminating in the two accelerating to destruction in the final quarter - the vocals do a fantastic job keeping pace with the rising tempo until it's just not possible anymore too.

I could go on, but I best save it for A) When it actually comes out and B) When you can actually hear what I'm talking about as well. Couple final points before I leave it: there's a great Eastern influence (ironically) on the instrumentation of Dust Of The North and my favourite is the gentle treatment on the main Lee "Scratch" Perry feature and closing track Reprise Of Light. Until then though, here is one of the two previews From The Womb To The Grave.



One final note before I wrap up, Snakes & Ladders is on Bandcamp twice but with good reason: cheaper shipping rates on the physical releases if you're in the USA! The link for the USA Bandcamp page is here - and just for redundancy's sake the EU / UK one is here as well. And that'll do it for this round, time got away from me a little bit again, but you can pretty much expect future posts to kind of be on this schedule for a while - they might even become sparser in the coming weeks because things will be getting busier IRL. But until then, as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Bringing it in

Charles Sheeler - Windows (1952)

A quick and slightly eclectic selection of stuff to see in this week - One that's been on the cards for a while and potential retro review candidate is more from Ladytron. Ever since they cropped up on Bandcamp about a year ago with their then-new single and album I had crossed all my digits that their full discography might make its way over there, and I am happy to say that I have not been disappointed. Most of it is there, aside from the respective singles from each album but even then most of the stuff from them worth hearing has been compiled into the 'Remixed & Rare' companion albums for each one. I've gone with a track from Witching Hour this time - home to some of the 'Tron's most iconic tunes though decidedly less electronic than 604 and Light & Magic before it, maybe it's the nostalgia talking but International Dateline and a few others on here are absolutely soaked in that mid 00's feel with their slight indie incline.



Another surprise find this time, I first found this track on a now out of print compilation from Toytronic called Everything Is Green on one of my semi-regular treks into the world of IDM. It's a lovely little comp that has a nice amount of variety on it, as the title of the compilation might suggest it's more on the more lush and melodic side of the IDM world that I've been very into at the minute. I first thought this one was a one off oblique Autechre / Board Of Canada reference (Boc Scadet being quite close to Basscadet, one of Autechre's early works) but turns out they are an established artist with a few releases under their belt. I still reckon it's a combo reference though, but that's conjecture on my part.

Anyway, the tune itself stood out to me because much like the naming scheme it sounds an awful lot like the stuff Autechre were making on Warp in their early days, which instantly appealed to me as that is some of my favourite stuff they've done (along with all the other artists at the time making similar). It's perhaps not quite as all in on the lush electronics as some of the tracks from Everything Is Green, but even so the techier elements aren't nearly as abrasive as some other examples I could pull up. It's that kind of bleepy electronic I can (and have) listened to all day, if the rest of the EP is like this I will almost certainly be adding it to my collection sometime soon.



And finally another visit to ThorHighHeels. If I'm honest I'm not ready yet to get more from them - between the two Umurangi Generation soundtracks I picked up a little while ago along with the Positive Yellow album as well, I have more than enough to get stuck into as-is. Still, I went for a cursory look, THH often uses his own tunes in their videos and some of them are seriously catchy so I try and find a few here and there to earmark for later. I adore Positive Yellow for wearing its inspirations on its sleeve - the whole thing is a blend of 90's rave, house, breakbeat, techno and hints of UK Garage here and there but doesn't come out feeling like a trite re-tread that overly panders.

That's a trend that continues on their other releases, albeit not as pronounced as on Yellow - bits of it can still be heard on the first track of In The Rough, especially when the 808 cowbells get their moment in the spotlight but the whole thing plays out like a more conventional indie electronic tune in the style of Monk and company I posted not too long ago. That's not a complaint though, more of an observation! THH still has a great ear for sounds and this track shows that off in spades, it's full of great little touches and I can't help but smile my way through that breakdown at around 1:15. I highly recommend checking them out, even if the ironic text and eye-searing neon of the album art turns you away a bit.



And that'll do it for this time, I'm back at work now for a little while but it shouldn't slow things down too much - though having said that I am going to look through the archives and see if anything catches my eye for another Retro Review so that could take longer than expected if I end up doing another long album like Moby's 18. I'll try and make another quick one if it does come to that though! Either way stay tuned and as always: Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Sounds For Sore Arms

Took an unintentional extended break, been taking it easy over the past couple days as I rode out the side effects of my vaccine. It's not been too bad from other accounts I've heard, worst I've had is the feeling of being decked in the arm real hard (and I think it might be making the spot where I broke my elbow a few years ago ache too? Hard to tell, I've been putting it in all kinds of weird positions to ease the ache so I might have just shifted something, or it could even just be me being more aware of it.

Marjorie Srider - My Jeans (1971)
But anyway, I thought I'd just chuck some thoughts and tunes down real quick to make up for it. Some Hip Hop stuff first of all, somethin' old and somethin' new. Deltron 3030's self titled debut first from the year 2000 - Deltron is a hip hop dream team of Del The Funky Homosapien, Dan The Automator and Kid Koala. It's a fantastic album throughout, Del really shines on the lyrical front throughout and he has a lot of fun with the album's concept and themes (It's set in the year 3030 you see). The content isn't quite as dated as some other high-tech themed stuff from around the time, but you might still get a grin or two when Del starts bragging about his Modem. Curiously you can't buy this on bandcamp for some reason, but it's definitely worth checking out in full regardless.



On that same line we have a new single from Aesop Rock. I'm not super up to speed on all his work but in my experience it's always been super high quality, and in cases of tracks like One Of Four - incredibly raw and real in terms of content at times. Enter Long Legged Larry - for as much as I admire Aes for putting out tracks like the one I mentioned that deal very candidly with mental health issues, I also like that in recent years he's started to make stuff that's a bit more... whimsical, for lack of a better term - be it a song about his cat, complete with a video starring a puppet version of himself to this one right here, it's becoming a bit of a theme. But just because the tone is more lighthearted doesn't mean that Aes compromises his trademark complex lyricism, there are some incredible rhymes and flow on Long Legged Larry - and the whole thing is completely PG too, there's a real gap in the market for rap that's appropriate for all ages that isn't oversimplified I think.

And I also can't stop thinking about this being included on a PaRappa The Rapper reboot either, though maybe that's just this one reminding me of Prince Fleaswallow's rap from the first game!



To that end, the other thing I'd been doing was playing a bunch of the many many indie games I'd picked up on Steam over the years. One of them I went back to was OlliOlli 2, a chill (if at times frustrating) skating side-scroller. Much like the Hotline Miamis before it, the two games have a whole heap of great indie soundtracks in them, and some surprisingly big names in the sequel too. And much like Hotline again, it has a distinct aesthetic it's shooting for that it achieves very, very well indeed. "L" is just one of the many tunes that set themselves up as immediate earworms - echoes of west coast Hip Hop past and present throughout (especially FlyLo's work, compare this to The Offbeat that I posted a couple weeks back), filtered through a Parisian lens to make for a smooth and groovy number that's tinged with a hint of nostalgia.



And of course like so many soundtracks before it, it's done a great job of showing me stuff that would have passed me by otherwise. Another artist to chuck on the 'incredibly hard to search for' pile, Tobacco is Thomas Fec - frontman of psychedelic rock band Black Moth Super Rainbow. And that Psychedelic streak certainly transfers into his work under this alias, to the point where I'm actually surprised a tune like this didn't pop up in Hotline Miami.

There's a lot of analog synth and tape machine work going on throughout his solo work (as evidenced by the title here too), this decidedly non-digital approach is very easy to hear in that very rough-'round'-the-edges sound that is fully on display here. It's a record that I could be really into if I was in the right mood, and at the minute I really am - it's been on my wishlist for ages as is, partly because I'm super lazy and you can't preview all the tracks on the BC page. Maybe it's time to take that deep dive sometime soon, and expect it to make an appearance again provided I can find tracks that are allowed to be previewed!



And that'll do us for today - again a little more variation than my standard fare but that's all right, I do need to remember to check out the BC pages before I do a post next time, the Deltron album being unavailable to buy and not all the Tobacco album being available to preview could have tripped this one up something fierce, wouldn't have stopped it mind, but I've grown to love the BC players, they work real nice and are fairly painless to implement and just general look good too compared to like a YT embed. Anyway, I'll wrap up here, might be a while before I post again as I've taken this week off work so I'm gonna try and take it easy, but I'll be back soon enough with more!

And as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Leave the light on for you

Another week, another tale of me finding something on my travels around the web. This is actually one I've had down on the list for a while but I hadn't done a search to see how easy it was to come by - which is pretty much why this post exists! On paper Ghostlight aren't an act that I'd cover here - billed as Indie / Dream pop on the discogs page there, and to be honest I wasn't really expecting to make a post of it either, I just liked the sound of a couple of the tunes that made their way into my recommended.

Not to be a genre puritan or anything - I can and have posted dream pop stuff here before - but Ghostlight are unique in that from what I've heard so far they often go in hard on the electronic front. This first track I've picked isn't perhaps the best example of that, but it is the one that introduced me to them - Fantasy Complex really grabbed me from the opening, appealing to that part of me that loves the Adult Swim style hip hop stuff and the chill side of the Silent Hill Soundtracks. That last comparison is pretty apt actually, when the indie side of Ghostlight comes through in the latter half, I can't help but get the same kind of feel that I do from the more indie sounding bits of Silent Hill 3's soundtrack - like End Of Small Sanctuary, just fused with a bit of a chillwave sensibility.



And from there it was just a matter of exploring more, the second track to really get my attention was this one - one of the few that are on Spotify as I looked to add some of these tunes my to my playlists. If the two, it's much more electronic - and very, very much of that early 10's indie scene. Not quite as hazy dreamy as Fantasy Complex though the distinctly quiet vocals remain. I picked a great time of year to check out their works, Mask is full of great little flourishes that compliment the sunnier turn that's happening for those of us in the northern hemisphere at the moment. My absolute favourite of which is those gorgeous keys coming in after the break at around 1:50, deliciously sweet but not in an overly cloying way which can be a pitfall for tunes like this.



And finally, a bit of a left turn. Ghostlight have a couple of compilations too which have a whole host of their artist friends on there too. It's here that discoveries like this really shine, as I've said so many times recently I went through a couple of months of picking up compilations here and there just because they often give you a massive injection of variety in one go, and the C/C compilations are no different - going from full on Ambient and IDM numbers to stuff more in line with Ghostlight's indie style. Enter Fabric 70's Take Me Somewhere Nice which is not a cover of Mogwai despite the name. It wastes no time getting right into the thick of things and letting you know exactly what you're in for - a sparkling indie/electronic number full of glittering synths and a very obviously House-inspired beat. I'm very in love with it at the minute (and once again my bias shows with that slight autotune on sections of the vocals, of which my weakness for is well documented)



It might not be for everyone, but I've liked this little jaunt. The Fabric 70 tune in particular, introducing me to some nostalgia I didn't even know I had, giving me mad flashbacks to the poppy electro of Shinichi Osawa's The One - tracks like Dreamhunt are in that same kind of groove. Most of Ghostlight's stuff is Pay what you want on the bandcamp page, but the two C/C comps are also 100% free downloads so definitely look them up if you're feeling what I've put up here! Though it looks like they've been inactive for a while, there's plenty in their discography to look at in the meantime - I know I plan to.

And as always - stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF

Gatherer's Garden

It's been a while since we checked in with Academy Garden - to the point where I think last time I brought up their work it was still under the 'Celadon City' alias. I've kept tabs on the goings on though, albeit in that weird parasocial Twitter way - the name changes, new releases and dipping on Spotify in favour of bandcamp to name just a few. I've been trying to move more in that direction myself - both ideologically and from a tech standpoint too as Spotify's players are naff quality, only 30 seconds and not archived on the Hype Machine either but I digress. I'd been waiting for the release date to come up on this one so I could run through it all, so let's do that now.

Last I really took a dive into Academy Garden's work I was in my final years of Uni, staying up way too late doing freelance renders for international folks on muggy nights. Tracks like Summer Nights really capture that time period for me, even more-so now with the added passage of time. They've never stopped making though, just to my shame that I haven't checked a lot of it out. Which brings us to Gatherer - I made a point to return to this one (no doubt helped by the repeated reminders from AG themselves!) to see what time and changes had brought to the table. A quote from AG on the bandcamp page before we begin:

GATHERER is a collection of tracks that followed some reflections on coping with anxiety and the flow of thoughts that came out from having those moments noted. It's my first work that has almost all tracks involving lyrics and somewhat thematic.

As someone in the creative space as well, I get it. I've made visual works in a similar vein that have never been released to the public and were purely for my own catharsis - there's an admirable bravery to putting something like this out there. That evolution and methodology is present from the get-go, as much as I loved (and still love) Summer Nights, when compared with the opening track of Gatherer it ends up sounding naïve by comparison. Though not as dark as you might expect given the brief above, it's not quite as bright as the album artwork either - there's still an undeniable underlying melancholy to it. And it doesn't waste any time in getting the album started, beginning in a way that makes it sound like you've dropped in part way through already.



Not to say that it's all focused on that aspect, track 2 Stasis takes things in a short sharp uptempo direction - it pretty accurately captures that manic feeling that comes with the territory of the album's themes and a great demonstration of AG's growth as an artist in the years since I last kept up. Speaking of, I haven't mentioned the vocals yet - as AG said in the little blurb, almost all the tracks here have lyrical accompaniment. My bias showing again as they all have this lovely auto-tune treatment that I get could turn some people away but I personally dig it and think it plays into the overarching themes as well, I love that a tune like Berserk hides those lyrics behind a cheery sounding instrumental and the melodic mumblings of the auto-tune. Its used to great effect here as we get two juxtaposed vocal tracks laid over each other - one sedate and one shouty, and they play off each other really well.



If I was was left wanting some of that dreamy vibe of earlier works, then the latter half of the album sees to that quite nicely. Recall, befitting its title immediately brought back that lush and hazy feel that I mentioned way back. There are echoes here of that video game inspired streak that was so prevalent in those pieces (Hence the name Celadon City), especially on those bit-crushed crunchy claps. Maybe it's because I'm coming off talking about those Ghostly Swim compilations, but it very much feels like the kind of indie electronic that fits their brand - though admittedly I focused more on the hip-hop stuff in that post. Its certainly a much more refined version of AG's earlier work, but it still does a real good job of capturing that feel once again, coming out sounding like a little audio time capsule back to some years ago.



With that in mind, the latter half of the LP is a much more... quiet experience than before. I don't know if the album is presented in chronological order but listening to it front to back like this really gives that impression of growth - going from the frenetic Stasis to the relatively calm High Tide makes for an interesting experience. The intro to High Tide really shows off AG's ear for lush sounds, it's absolutely gorgeous in that Rei Harakami kind of way, a trend that continues throughout the rest of the runtime. This one feels like it ends a bit suddenly, but while an extended fade or some additional noodling would have sounded nice, the sudden steep fade is interesting and plays into the overriding themes of both the album and the lyrics themselves quite nicely.



That trend continues for the rest of the tracklist - Exhume following it in much the same fashion. This one in particular really reminds me of some of the solo work Kenuske Ushio does under the Agraph alias, especially from his debut A Day, Phases. If I'm honest there are a whole host of tracks on there that it reminds me of, I've picked out And Others which I think comes closest, take away the more glitchy ambient bits and it's almost there, though it doesn't have the beat of Exhume. That said, I'd love to hear AG take a crack at something more like that in the future - I got my wish for the extended fade on this one so it's worth mentioning!



Finally there is Tabernacle. Not to repeat myself but this, too, is incredibly lush - unlike the others we've talked about so far, the final track goes all in on the ambient side of things. Well, I say that but at risk of spoiling the experience for you, it's more similar in structure to a Post-Rock tune as it builds to a massive crescendo in the final quarter. Blurring the electronic lines a bit with the instrumentation as it gets almost orchestral at times but it makes for one hell of an album closer. If I may make one final comparison, the structure and mixture of electronic and acoustic evoke some of The Flashbulb's work - We Are Alone In A City similarly builds to a massive burst of sound that's just wonderful.



It's nice to come back and see an artist develop over time, if there's a silver lining to missing some releases and then catching up on their latest, it's that it makes the evolution much more apparent than if you'd been keeping up with every release. It obviously means a lot more when it's an indie musician too, especially one that you've gotten to know a little bit (again in that parasocial sense but still!). I hope you've enjoyed our brief excursion today, I'm attempting to get back on the promo train to get a bit of variety in my listening and on the feed and hopefully support some more indies along the way, just figuring out the best way to do it is all.

And as always - Stay safe and enjoy the music.

-CVF