Inner
Islands has put out some pretty stellar tapes in the past half-decade,
including a 4 way split with Panabrite, Hakobune, Oliwa and Former Selves that
ought to be fetching them high-fives and back-pats for the rest of the 2010’s
at least. If you haven’t heard the Hear Hums shit yet, you’re in for a real
goddamn treat. The label primarily focuses on ambient/experimental/new-agey
stuff, and, for me, sometimes there’s juuuuust a li’l too much techno-ish
percussion for my liking, and this particular release almost goes there.
Almost.
There’s
a good Olympic-sized swimming pool’s worth of space to float in and out of
consciousness to here, with slow delay/tremolo heavy ghost riff-age of guitar
lines that feel just slightly out of focus behind the sparse, crisp, metronomic
hand percussion of a deep conga drum or maybe claves. Is that a cowbell? Train-crossing
warning? Some droning synth lines waft in here & there, some airplane-engine-low,
some higher, IASOS style, delightfully-cheesy ones, too, to round out the
dynamic range.
By
the third time through, I really began to dig this album for its potential as a
great mood setter. They’ve really perfected the balance of relaxing, mellow
swaths of harmonious sound with the maximum groove required for a most subtlest
of hip-shakings without reasonably being called too distracting for most
workspaces. I’d suggest listening to the whole album in one go, as the charm
might not come through with hasty sampling of the tracks.
and/or
-
- Jacob An Kittenplan
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