This is an interesting album that took my fancy by meshing the ideas and sensibilities of ambient and downtempo music with the beats and structures of dance music. Not to say we haven't all seen this before but this album really has a charming sound of its own with plenty of cool synth sounds and memorable melodies. One could, however, accuse the album of feeling quite samey between tracks and dragging on past its welcome.
My thoughts on songs:
"Cherry Blossom" start off with some sort of mysterious sounding chords lined with a bit of white noise which was perhaps a bit boring alone but as the song progresses on a larger host of melodies and sounds step in and really compliment the chords well. The melody that kicks in just past the 3 minute mark is especially surprising; it's really odd and unexpected but has a great effect on the track going on.
"Hazy Eyes" offers something different to the plate with some really epic and cinematic sounding synth string melodies that remind me a lot of trance music. But instead of a cheesy thumpy trance beat we are given a beat that is less obvious: slow and angry over a huge wash of synth pads high and low. The end result is really quite haunting.
"Blauw" is a track with a blend of rhythmic percussion that gets you moving against all will. Beyond the beat is a spacious collage of piano, bass, vocal samples and synths, though without the droning pads you usually hear on this album but not without the solemn feeling. In the second half of the track a new vocal sample is added to the loop that picks the track up a notch and makes it quite touching and memorable.
"Lantern Fly" is a track towards the end of the album that stood out to me for its simple but effective musical ideas. A four to the floor beat and a chord progression (played by a bright and innocent sounding synth) start off the track, with more layers coming on later into the track (a common trick on this album) to really beef it up into something big, bright and sentimental, reminding me of the feeling you get when you have to say goodbye to someone.
Click here or on the image above to listen to and download the album
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