Ambient – Page 4 – 7th Level Music

Top 30 albums of 2021: #’s 25 – 21

Let’s not waste time. Here are the records that cracked my top 25 (of over 60) that I reviewed last year.

#25: The Beths – Auckland, New Zealand, 2020

This delightful live album from The Beths is full of joy. The band was over the moon, the crowd was ecstatic, and daring to open with “I’m Not Getting Excited” was a gutsy move when everyone in the place was bursting with energy.

#24: Acid Dad – Take It from the Dead

Acid Dad were a band I’d heard a lot about, yet didn’t know much about them. I caught them live about an hour from my house and was sold within two songs. Take It from the Dead is a fine psych-rock record with touches of surf that make it a standout.

#23: Ty Segall – Harmonizer

Ty Segall added a bunch of synths and electronic beats to his already heavy fuzz rock, and the result, Harmonizer, was impressive. He showed his love for krautrock and even dance rock, and that he could pull off both genres as easily as psych jams.

#22: Morly – Till I Start Speaking

Easily one of the loveliest and sexiest albums of 2022, Till I Start Speaking is a great mix of Morly’s vocals, electro-beats, and synths. I hadn’t heard of Morly until this record was sent to me, and it was a pleasant discovery.

#21: Pearl & The Oysters – Flowerland

Speaking of lovely records, here’s another one. Bossa nova, disco, ambient, and house all merge together for an album as pretty and trippy as its cover.

Who makes the top 20? You’ll learn tomorrow!

Keep your mind open.

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Review: Bremer / McCoy – Natten

Natten (“The Night”) is a beautiful album of ambience and improvisation from Denmark duo Bremer / McCoy. Written and recorded straight to tape, with no room for second takes, the album becomes meditations and explorations for the bassist (Bremer) and keyboardist (McCoy).

The title track, written by McCoy as he watched a Swedish sunset, opens the record with groovy organ that reminds one of riding in a taxi from the airport into a quiet city as the night emerges. “Mit Hjerte” and “Gratitude” have bright, shining piano from McCoy. “Hjertebarn” sounds like something Vince Guaraldi might’ve dreamed up one night in his studio.

“Nu og Altid” and “April” are dreamy, drifting tracks. “Aurora” and “Nova,” on the other hand, are trippy, cosmic chill-outs. “Måneskin” effortlessly drifts into “Natten (Part 2)” – a welcome return on our relaxing journey – before we end with the sexy and subtle “Lalibela.”

This whole album blends together for an intoxicating sound that lingers with you for a while after you hear it. It’s a delight.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Brett Naucke – Mirror Ensemble

Chicago’s Brett Naucke teamed up with two other well-respected Chicago musicians, Natalie Chami and Whitney Johnson, to create Mirror Ensemble – an album that combines synthwave, ambient, and even a bit of indie rock to make a meditative gem.

“Vanity Well” gets things off to a mood-altering start, and then “The Glass Shifting” comes in sounding like something from the new Dune film score. The longest track on the album, “A Look That Tells Time,” takes its time to stretch out and let you relax into it with its temple-like bell sounds and lotus flower-drifting-on-a-lazy-river.

“Catch Your Breath,” at a quarter of the previous track’s length, is a short meditation, while “Parallax” is the sound of sunlight shining through a prism. Trust me, you’ll feel this when you hear it. “Rose Water” is equally delightful, while “Sleep with Your Windows Open” is going to become your new favorite song to put on your bedroom speakers this summer. The closer, “Late Century Reflection,” ends the album with slightly up-tempo beats and synths that rise like a flock of birds from the edge of a still lake.

It’s a lovely record, suitable for meditation, making out, or even just walking around the neighborhood.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Cody at Clandestine PR.]

E.VAX releases “Karst” ahead of new album due tomorrow.

E.VAX – the project of Ratatat’s Evan Mast – announces his new, self-titled album, out September 17th via Because Music, and today presents a new single/video, “Karst.” Performing as half of Ratatat for more than the last decade, Mast’s music has reached an enormous audience with its bombastic merge of rock and electronic music, as well as through his parallel work as a hip-hop producer for artists such as Kanye West, Kid Cudi, and Jay-Z . His new solo album, E.VAX, is a collection of instrumental songs, dolloped with moments of exploratory dialogue, disembodied moments that are equally disorienting and moving. The throughline between the songs on his new album is not a certain signature sound, but Mast’s feel as a producer. Though one song may lean heavier on snappy drums and another on the coo of an organ, they all share a similar sensibility. The songs are sincere, playful, inviting, curious, and contemplative—all characteristics of Mast himself.

For this album, Mast loosened his attitude towards production, looking to capture some of the excitement of creation. He recorded at home, and then midway through the pandemic he spent time in Montana, recording in a friend’s art gallery. The blank space and isolation after so much studio time in close quarters allowed for a new looseness. He’d play songs at the wrong speed to see how it changed what he heard, or deliberately leave a melody untouched for months and then improvise over it after playing it anew for the first time. Unable to get lost in real life, he got lost in music. “I used to be way more precious,” Mast says about his songwriting. “A lot of this stuff on the record is about trying to skip the brain processes that can get in the way of making something that really feels sincere.”

Following his first offering, “Rabindra,” “Karst” features harp and a vintage drum machine. The accompanying video is made of footage that Mast took in China. “One of my favorite moments over the past few years was riding on a scooter with my brother through a landscape of karst mountains in southern China,” says Mast. “I wanted this track to sound the way that felt. I started recording it in Brooklyn during the most intense part of lockdown last spring, and finished it a few months later in a barn at a friend’s place in Montana.”

The “Karst” video is the second installment in a series of music videos he made for all 12 tracks on the album, shot all around the globe. Made up largely of videos Mast shot while walking around and sewn together so they pan slowly, there is simultaneously a feeling of stillness and motion, which is amplified when you encounter strangers looking at the camera.
Watch E.VAX’s Video for “Karst”

Watch the “Rabindra” Video

Pre-order E.VAX

E.VAX Tracklist
1. Rabindra
2. Karst
3. Always
4. What About You
5. Manila
6. Anything At All
7. Kolkata
8. Pretty Good
9. New Words
10. Little Lung
11. Koko
12. Actual Air

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Bremer/McCoy release new single, “Natten,” ahead of full album due this October.

Bremer/McCoy, the duo of pianist Morten McCoy and bassist Jonathan Bremer, announce their new album, Natten, out October 29th on Luaka Bop, and share its lead single, the album’s title track. For Natten, Bremer/McCoy recorded straight to tape so that they had as little time as possible to think about it. They just laid it down. They couldn’t really explain it. “When it works for me,” says pianist MortenMcCoy, “it’s pure meditation, pure prayer. Pure gratitude for simply being, without all kinds of jibber-jabber filling my thoughts.”

McCoy and Bremer started making music together back in 2012 when they were still in school. At 17 years old, Bremer was awarded with the Young Jazz Award from Jazz Denmark and for three years he was a solid part of the acclaimed Niels Lan Doky trio. McCoy started his musical journey by digging deep into the Jamaican music-culture both as a musician, composer, concert-organizer and DJ. Since then, he’s worked as a co-composer on the award-winning soundtrack for the Danish movie Underverden. Upon the duo’s creation, they at first played dub. It’s hard to imagine that that’s how they started when you listen to the ethereal sounds they make now, but the influence becomes clearer when you see them live.

Bremer/McCoy insist on traveling with their own sound system. That might seem like a lot of effort for a quiet Danish duo, but for Bremer/McCoy, making music is all about what happens in the room. That’s why they go through the trouble of carrying their own equipment, and it’s why they record analog. When they write music, they aim for direct transmission—idea straight to composition. Natten is the follow-up to a string of albums – their debut Enhed (2013), Ordet (2015), Forsvinder (2016), and Utopia (2019). “We felt a greater freedom this time around because we now have a much deeper understanding and grounding in what we’re doing,” says Bremer. “This allows us to venture further out than ever before, because we know that things typically fall into place.”

Natten, which means “The Night” in Danish, draws inspiration from the end of day, that regenerative time under the constellations when our lives look different. Listeners might be quick to call it escapist—the music might be a reprieve from our busy lives. And while that’s one way to experience Natten, there’s also another, which has more to do with immersion. It offers us the chance to see what’s around us as beautiful. McCoy wrote the title track, “Natten,” while watching the sun set in Sweden. And although the track doesn’t have lyrics, it carries a message, directly from McCoy to you: You won’t find the meaning of life by chasing answers. You’ll find it by waiting and staying open to the world. That’s the message of the title track, and it might as well be the message of the whole album because that’s clearly the state of mind McCoy and Bremer were in when they were recording: Open.

Listen to “Natten” by Bremer/McCoy

“The well is far from empty,” says Bremer. “Listening to great works is like having a deep conversation with somebody, a type of communication that can evolve and continue opening doors to new perspectives.”There’s a hint in what Bremer says of how he hopes his own listeners will experience his music. As a key to something. A key to life, or possibly a key to appreciating new sounds. This is the feeling Bremer/McCoy’s music transmits that you won’t be able to shake. They’re trying to tell you something; you’ll hear it if you listen.

Luaka Bop was founded by David Byrne in 1989. The label represents artists such as Floating Points and William Onyeabor, and is known for introducing the music of Tim Maia and Shuggie Otis, as well as the spiritual music of Alice Coltrane, to the world at large. Earlier this year, Luaka Bop released Promises by Floating Points, Pharoah Sanders and The London Symphony Orchestra. The album has received worldwide acclaim.

Pre-order Natten

Natten Tracklist:
01. Natten
02. Mit Hjerte
03. Gratitude
04. Hjertebarn
05. Nu Og Altid
06. April
07. Aurora
08. Nova
09. Måneskin
10. Natten (part 2)
11. Lalibela

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Sam at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Pearl & the Oysters – Flowerland

“Delightful” is the word I’d use to sum up Pearl & The Oysters‘ new album, Flowerland. It’s a bright, lovely electro-pop record and the kid of music we all sorely need as we approach the latter half of 2021 with trepidation. Should we travel? Is the pandemic really over? Is it okay to make out and hug people again? Pearl & The Oysters might not have all the answers, but they do have warm, self-replicating optimism.

“Soft Science,” the album’s opener, is a song about taking time to enjoy life (“Hey, come to the beach. You studied all night long.”) and not being a slave to the self-imposed grind. Poppy, fun synths encourage us to step outside our comfortable homes and feel the sand between our toes again. The up-tempo “Bit Valley” is an ode to staring at a computer for so long that you dream about it later. The synths sound like happy, giddy birds throughout the whole track.

“Treasure Island” is perfect for lounging at the outdoor hotel pool, at the beach, or even on the plane ride back from vacation. It’s lazy, groovy, and lovely electro-lounge. “Radiant Radish” is psychedelic surf as Pearl & The Oysters encourage us to get away from bumper-to-bumper traffic and forget your troubles at the beach. The lazy beats and lazy, warped guitar riffs on “Crocodile” reflect the self-isolation lethargy so many of us faced (“Why am I still inside?”). On its surface, “Candy” is about a love of candy and indulging in one’s sweet tooth, but is actually about love, lust, and, I suspect, oral sex. It’s a sweet, funky jam anyway you cut it.

The title track is a dreamy fantasy of crashing on an alien world and discovering it’s a sunny paradise. “Evening Sun” is about being hungover, both on booze and on Netflix, home cooking, and staying indoors. The beats on it are crisp, and the addition of a flute is a lovely touch. “Baby” is their version of the Bossa nova classic, and it’s a welcome delight on an already delightful album.

“Wizzo” brings in sitar and robot-like vocals about the future coming early, as it always does. “Osteroid Asteroid” is so full of fat synth bass that it should probably have its blood sugar checked. On “Satellite,” Pearl and the Oysters sing about the law of (physical) attraction, to the point where it’s keeping her awake at night for fear of missing something delightful. “Rocket Show” has a bit of minstrel show / circus sound to it, with what I think is a harpsichord prancing throughout it. It’s a song of optimism and seems like it’s congratulating all of us for making it through 2020, but Flowerland was completed pre-pandemic. The album closes with the instrumental, trippy “Flamingo Sketches.”

It’s a lovely record all-around and one you’ll enjoy as you move from summer to autumn, and then listen to again in winter so you can remind yourself that summer will come.

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Gabriel at Clandestine PR.]

Cold Beat release first single, “See You Again,” from upcoming album – “War Garden.”

San Francisco-based band Cold Beat announce their new album, War Garden, out September 17th via Like LTD, and share its lead single/video, “See You Again.” The name War Garden is both a reference and a revelation. Although it gets its namesake from the self-sufficiency of World War II civilians to plant and grow their own food, in a more metaphorical sense it sprouted from a sense of connection, during a time where it was physically impossible to do so. The distance caused by the pandemic strengthened the bond between members Hannah Lew, Sean Monaghan, Kyle King, and Luciano Talpini Aita, resulting in an album that’s a remarkable leap from their earlier guitar-forward work. Following multiple albums and EPs, plus collaborations with notable contemporaries and icons such as Los Angeles artist Cooper Saver and Cabaret Voltaire’s Stephen Mallinder, War Garden presents Cold Beat as a fully realized unit. They openly embrace a synthesized landscape with rich harmonies and 80s pop flourishes, all while maintaining a complex emotional depth.

Rather than the sound reflecting the surrounding despair, the music is often suitable for the dance-floor, driven by steady, machine-like rhythms and ethereal vocals. War Garden calls to mind some of the greats: The melodies of Human League, the syncopation of Oppenheimer Analysis, and everything about New Order. While Lew is the front person, all members all contributed to the songwriting.

Lead single “See You Again” was written via zoom, like the rest of the album. This particular track was created in the first three months of lockdown and chronicled the feelings that came with the realization that they wouldn’t see each other for an unknown stretch of time. After Lew sat a shiva for a family friend, Monaghan sent another version of the song, and it developed into meditation on the unknown possibility of reconnecting with loved ones in the afterlife. “I had spent many months toiling in the dirt, tending to my War Garden,” says Lew. “Working with the soil is so hopeful, but also morbid. I had to bury some bulbs instead of being able to be present for the burial of a close friend. It became almost fetishistic to bury seeds, like a physical way to be there without actually being able to be there.”

The accompanying video, directed by Mimi Pfahler and shot in Lew’s yard and at Ocean Beach, was the first reconnection opportunity many had. “Among people on set I know there was a sense of transcendence – just a moment to give form to the feelings of isolation and physical need for each other that had built up,” says Lew.

Watch Cold Beat’s Video for “See You Again”

War Garden’s complexities reveal themselves piece by piece—an instrument at a time. Although some of its explorations are heavy, there’s a sense of optimism in the final beat build-up and fading choral and keyboard arrangement—a harbinger of much better things to come.

Pre-order War Garden

War Garden Tracklist
1. Mandelbrot Fall
2. SOS
3. Tumescent Decoy
4. Weeds
5. See You Again
6. Arms Reach
7. Year Without A Shadow
8. Rubble Ren
9. Part The Sea
10. Leaves And Branches
11. New World

Cold Beat online:
https://twitter.com/coldbeatsf?lang=en
https://www.facebook.com/coldbeatsf/
https://coldbeatsf.bandcamp.com/music
https://www.pitchperfectpr.com/cold-beat/
https://www.instagram.com/cold_beat/?hl=en

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Jacob at Pitch Perfect PR.]

Review: Splash ’96 – Summers in Anniston

Summers in Anniston, the new album by Splash ’96 (AKA Jason LaRay Keener), is a time machine turned into a record. It takes us back to a time when you could still hang out at the pool, mall, record store, or a friend’s back yard patio and not have to worry about as many killer viruses, angry political conversations, or everyone talking on their damn phone all the damn time.

The bright synths of opening track “CD Baby” are like a blast of cool air that hits you while walking into the mall vestibule from the hot July day. “Our Camcorder” has some classic-sounding processed beats that would fit in fine on a Janet Jackson jam. “The Video Store” is a loving tribute to something that no longer exists (apart from a lone Blockbuster out west and specialty stores here and there), and captures the background music of such a place and the constant looping of advertising videos played there.

“Pool Water,” complete with sampled splashing sounds, is a fun bubbly track perfect for the opening of an early 1990s summer coming-of-age comedy. “Waterbed Nap” is as relaxing as its namesake. “Local Radar” is the sound of the local TV station’s 24-hour weather channel that you watch like a hawk all summer to see if your ballgame, pool party, or trip to the beach is going to be rained out.

“Splurgin’ at the Mall” sounds like a lost Pet Shop Boys cut and has a fun, fat bass lick throughout it to accompany your spending spree at the hot pretzel stand, Spencer’s Gifts, Sam Goody Records and Tapes, and the arcade. “Quintard Cruising” is a straight-up mid-1990s house track (referring to a shopping mall in Oxford, Alabama), and so good that Splash ’96 should consider putting out a house record (if he isn’t already creating one).

“Late Night Drive-Thru” is a perfect song for late night drives with the windows open and three pals in the car with nowhere to go and nothing to do but enjoy the warm night air and listen to the cool new CD one of them just bought with the money they earned at the video store. The album ends with the mellow, slightly warped “Please Adjust Your Tracking,” a phrase familiar to anyone who has ever owned a VCR. I’m surprised the phrase hasn’t transformed into a version of “Step off!” by now.

It’s a fun record, and one that brings back a lot of memories if you were at least a teenager in the 1990s.

Keep your mind open.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFGknXz9UEU

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[Thanks to Splash ’96.]

Review: El Jazzy Chavo – Aspects of Dystopia

Combining jazz, hip hop, funk, and “atmospheric melodies,” El Jazzy Chavo‘s Aspects of Dystopia is a cool, mood-altering record that can be experienced in different moods, on different days, and through different listening systems all to various effects.

The overriding theme of the album is the day-to-day struggle of the lower class living in places with people (and buildings) who overlook them. “Futurama” is like the opening track to a film about a renegade graffiti artist in a totalitarian regime and a place where “the deep snow buries any sound.”

The groove of “Slap of Realism” is rooted in electro-bass and and processed beats that sound almost like they’re coming from the back of a bodega down the street. “Below the City” is surprisingly bright, as if you went into the sewers to hide from killer robots and discovered a vibrant colony of other survivors there. “Delusion” would fit well into a horror film with its simple synth stabs and ethereal chords.

“Where the Stars Don’t Shine” is the track that introduced me to El Jazzy Chavo. The wicked beats, sampled horns, and lounge vibraphone sounds hooked me right away. “The voice you hear is not my speaking voice,” a woman says at the beginning of “La Sirena de la Salva,” and then siren-like calls emerge from your speakers alongside smooth guitars and snappy beats. “Threshold of Sensation” has a neat warped sound to it that almost makes you feel drunk.

“Swallowed by Normality” has a neat switch near the end that shakes you out of your relaxation, but not in a harsh way. The sampled brass on “Hemispheres” is a great accompaniment to the vaporwave synths. “Return to Forever” is waiting for a rapper of mad skills to come along and use it in his next track. “Andromeda” has some of the best use of sampled raps on the record.

“Barefoot in the Storm” has a groove as relaxing at the title implies, and “Stealing in the Moonlight” is just as slick. The album ends with, appropriately, “Oblivion.” The track isn’t gloomy, however. It’s more of a blissful peace one finds as you fall into a well-deserved rest. The album ends with the sampled lyrics of, “I look out the attic window and watch the world go by. I feel like an outsider. I’m on a different wavelength than everybody else.”

He is, and Aspects of Dystopia will put you onto El Jazzy Chavo’s wavelength.

Keep your mind open.

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Anika releases title track from her upcoming album – “Change.”

Anika – the project of Berlin-based musician Annika Henderson who is also a founding member of Exploded View – announces Change, her first new album in over a decade, out July 23rd on Sacred Bones & Invada, and shares the “Change” video directed by Sven Gutjahr who also directed the video for recent single “Finger Pies.” The follow-up to cult favorite Anika (2010), Change is beautifully fraught. The intimacy of its creation and a palpable sense of global anxiety are seemingly baked into the album’s DNA. Spread across nine tracks, the central feeling of the record is one of heightened frustration buoyed by guarded optimism. The songs offer skittering, austere electronic backdrops reminiscent of classic Broadcast records or Hi Scores-era Boards of Canada, playing them against Anika’s remarkable voice—Nico-esque, beautifully plaintive, and—in regards to the record’s subject matter—totally resolute.

Having worked collaboratively in the past with the likes of BEAK> and Exploded View, Change was ultimately the product of necessity. After recording the initial ideas by herself at Berlin’s Klangbild Studios, Anika was joined by Exploded View’s Martin Thulin, who co-produced the album and played some live drums and bass. “This album had been planned for a little while and the circumstances of its inception were quite different to what had been expected,” says Anika. “This colored the album quite significantly. The lyrics were all written there on the spot. It’s a vomit of emotions, anxieties, empowerment, and of thoughts like—How can this go on? How can we go on?”

Recorded at a time when literally everyone in the world was being forced to take stock, rethink, and reimagine their own place in the cosmos of things, Anika provides the wizened perspective of an outsider. It’s a perspective that is not lost on the British ex-pat and former political journalist, and despite the subject matter and the circumstances around its creation, Change itself is ultimately a treatise on optimism. The title track presents the album’s message writ large: “I think we can change, we all have things to learn, about ourselves and about each other.” To end the record on such a sanguine note might be one of Change’s most revolutionary gestures.

“There’s a lot of stuff I want to change,” says Anika. “Some things I sat down and decided last year, I had to change about myself and my life. Sometimes it feels helpless because the things we want to change are so huge and out of our control. Starting with yourself is always a good place. I think we can change.”
Watch “Change” Video

Watch “Finger Pies” Video

Pre-order ChangeChange Tracklist
1. Finger Pies
2. Critical
3. Change
4. Naysayer
5. Sand Witches
6. Never Coming Back
7. Rights
8. Freedom
9. Wait For Something Anika European Tour Dates:
Sept. 10 – Offenbach, DE @ Hafen2
Sept. 12 – Dunkerque, FR @ Les 4 Ecluses
Sept. 23 – Nancy, FR @ L’Autre Canal
Sept. 24 – Rouen, FR @ Le 106 Club

Keep your mind open.

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[Thanks to Patrick at Pitch Perfect PR.]