ANGEL EYES - "Dire Dish" c36 (Not Not Fun)

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Another mysterious and wonderful fruit drops from the colourful and winding tree that is Not Not Fun.Angel Eyes is a one man show, although going by what this tape has to offer audibly, you'd think there were at least 10 musicians playing these songs.This is ultra-layered and carefully pieced together drone magic.The synthesizers seem to go on for an eternity, swirling and swelling up like giant bubbles along the way.Dire Dish starts of slow, with a grainy, slow-as-molasses percussive swagger that could pass for a tattered Sun Araw 45 on 33rpm.Soft synthesizer tones begin to pile high, as he demonstrates some rather clever stereo panning, giving it a rich full sound.Dreamy dub-guitar wails come into play, and slowly get lost in the textured synth arrangements.A bit of calm, slightly delayed chanting rises up from the haze, like a dense smoke floats up from a campfire.The lyrics are pretty incoherent, but it seems that he is utilizing the tone of his subtle voice, and adding it to the vast, slow-burning swells around him.

As Dire Dish echoes on, things actually begin to slow up a bit more with each track, providing a perfect canvas for his distant voice to spill it's lengthy, mumbled words over.It's almost as if you are listening to a single 36 minute movement, with just a few breaks every so often.Usually this means there's a lack of progression and intrigue in a recording, and generally bores me to death, but Angel Eyes knows how to hold your attention, and provides more than enough catchy analog drones and climbing string arrangements.Even his silent lulls are pleasant breaks, somewhat necessary to what he is trying to achieve.Imagine Growing or Belong's ethereal swirling, with Sun Araw's guitar and vocal echoes laid over top, and you're getting the idea.I hear a bit of dub influence at times, with a low, crawling bass lines and dense, percussive clicks and thuds that rest below them.A perfect concoction to back his vocal style, in my opinion.If you have the attention span for things of this nature, you will want to pick this up immediately over @ Not Not Fun.