DIFFERENCE CLOUDS s/t C37
Zach Smith’s Difference Clouds project reaches out with spacey synth shouts and arpeggiated atmospheres sent down from the bluest sky. Running the gamut from Oneohtrix-esque electro-pastiche to Mist-like cosmic trips. We are seeing sound in full-spectrum color; with blues diving into pinks, revolving back into themselves as greens and reds. It’s a kaleidoscopic, deep trip into the mind sentient hardware — pulsing, moving fluid-like, handling its own controls.
VILLAGES – ‘The Spilling Past’ C45
Villages is a project that has been creating a bit of a name for itself over the last chunk of time. Creating a fractured, decaying, yet blissfully direct and acute sound. Keys and bells chime on, leading the way through fields of bass tones. Elements of William Basinski’s disintegrated sounds meld with celestial soundscapes recalling Stars Of The Lid and Tim Hecker.
MERRYL – ‘Slow Spell’ C28
Unfurling itself like a rolling blanket of cool fog into a pasture, Merryl’s tones flutter into spacier territories the further they play on. Dreamlike atmospheres are created with patience and focus. This is not background drone, this is the an attention grabber for heavy heads; the type of introspective art that you lose yourself in. This is a musical bath of silver-flakes floating through light beams coming through the spaces. Dense, heavy, textural, but never losing a sense of warm psychedelia; touching on characteristics devised by artists the likes of Jefre Cantu-Ledesma, Earn, and Pale Blue Sky. Beautiful, beautiful stuff.