Foxy Digitalis
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If there was ever an album that was ripe for a stellar tribute, it was Ted Lucas’s magical self-titled record. Portland, Oregon songwriter Jeffrey Silverstein was asked by Perpetual Doom to head up the project the label couldn’t have made a better choice. Silverstein, whose own solo work is quite wonderful itself, brought together a […]
Getting lost is sometimes the best way to escape. In the opening sequence of Booker Stardrum’s beautiful lament, “Walking Through Still Air,” he cascades jewel-encrusted notes into a fuzz-laden pool, waiting for the moment to break free. Jamie Branch’s skittering trumpet lights the fuse and as soon as Stardrum layers in phased-out, raucous percussive samples it’s time for lift-off.
Sally Decker’s “The Loss” lingers well beyond its runtime, a lucid memory running on a loop in your mind. Paired with Emily Chao’s haunting video (made in collaboration with Decker), the thick tension channeled through these four minutes can be felt through your entire body. It’s a stark preview of her forthcoming album, In The […]
Unexpected geometry becomes an obscuring prism that shifts your perception of Robert Gerard Pietrusko’s narcotic “UTM39N.” Tranquil synth currents move across the surface, waves searching for a beach to smother, while electronic static is an aural glaze that hovers above like the sound of the summer sun. Pietrusko’s work is effortless as if it was plucked from the trees in the video, a solitary leaf floating through the grey skies to the earth below.
Yann Novak's work exists in an ephemeral place where meaning hangs at arms' length, quietly listening but leaving room for interpretation. For his latest album on Room 40, Lifeblood of Life and Rapture, he opens a vein and let's the world helplessly revolve. Through gentle rolling synthesis, shards of light pierce the haze to offer an escape route.
“Frozen in Time” from Haco‘s excellent new album for Someone Good, Nova Naturo is a mini masterpiece or spectral and aural delights. Held tenderly inside looping piano chords that hold onto golden moments, keeping them aloft. Haco’s voice traces the lines on your palm as the beat pushes forward and live drums pick up the […]
Today, Garden Portal releases their killer spring batch and I highly recommend jumping over to their page and picking those up if you haven’t already. All four releases are worth your time. To end this 4-week run (which has been great and I would love to do this kind of thing more so labels/artists – holler at […]
Penultimate Garden Portal premiere today, this time from the inimitable Jeffrey Alexander. “Perpetual Sunrise” is my favorite song off Alexander’s new tape, Reyes, as it drifts into radiant zones of plucked guitar and astral drones. Peaceful feelings permeate the tune as it gently drifts along, a languid float in the lake, eyes closed as you […]
Week #2 (of 4!) on the Garden Portal premiere front brings us another wonderful video from Katrina Ohstrom (also check their Instagram), this time of Wendy Eisenberg’s “a line” from Cellini’s Halo. Eisenberg left their mark on my 2020 with the utterly enchanting, brilliant Auto, but “a line” (and Cellini’s Halo generally) is on a different planet. Their guitar playing zigzags like a lost insect climbing […]