Release of the Month – February 2012
Saltillo – Monocyte
In 2006, trip-hop artist Saltillo (aka Menton J. Matthews III) released his debut album entitled Ganglion. It was a solid mark for the Chicago-based violin player, as the record placed his name between the lips of many astounded critics. After six years, Matthews has finally released a follow up that not only quells his fans, but arguably challenges the raw talent exhibited the first time around. Monocyte is an intensely engaging listen that the artist originally produced to compliment his comic book series that shares the same title. Matthews creates otherworldly environments on Monocyte, by mixing harmonious violin and cello tracks over a modern foundation of downtempo beats. The results are exactly as one might expect them to be, absolutely astounding. Matthews supplements these songs with other sonic anomolies that ultimately give the some of the tracks a rather eerie presence. He uses nostalgic samples along with gentle piano strokes and even reverse speech to gain this effect. Overall, Monocyte is an excellent release that deserves a spot on February’s Release of the Month.
-Brent Andrew Dare
James Murray – Floods
Many of the strongest ambient albums feature a melancholic sentiment, but the overwhelming theme on James Murray’s second full length is that of joy. The London-based artist grew up near two converging rivers in Wales where as a boy he witnessed a flooding of the plains every Winter. This is an attempt at capturing the essence of his own awe. The acoustic palette from “scavenged” instruments is supported with delicate sounding electronics and field recordings, and the results bypass nostalgia and instead revel in the wonder. The most attractive aspect has to be the clarity of sounds. Where many ambient outings blur the sources, Murray keeps the unhurried guitars crystalline and most distortion is provided by wind or water. Song titles dictate a clear story arc to follow: “First Falls” is as delicate as rain in the early hours and “Greenlands” uses a variant of Celtic harp that gently scintillates like the lushness before the waters arrive. The types of sounds carve a clear path, starting with the whimsical naïvité presented by these acoustic-centric tracks in the album’s first half. The standout moment appears at the spine in “Floods” where the burgeoning chords and layers grant us a feeling of something bigger than ourselves. Any melancholy is swallowed by the unstoppable momentum. After this the electronics creep into the narrative more. A cyclical guitar line serves as the engine on “Still Waters Rise,” allowing gentle Oneotrix Point Never-like synths to wash and cleanse. The muffled tectonics on “Hold Your Breath” speaks to a maturity granted by the realization that everything in this world is temporary. Floods is a joyful celebration of a child’s experience of curiosity and arrival at knowing, one that will melifluously penetrate the seasoned filters of adults. Releasing the album on his own Slowcraft label, Murray presents a rejuvenating experience that expresses the unbridled power and gracious plenitude of the natural world.
-Nayt Keane
bvdub – The First Day
On his latest release under the bvdub moniker, Brock Van Wey has unleashed yet another work of beauty composed of minimal, reverb-heavy soundscapes. The First Day is a stroll in a park full of bright colors; greens, yellows, sky blues wash upon the listener throughout this exemplary aural trip. It leaves behind the melancholic nostalgia of Van Wey’s previous releases yet it remains true to his current, well-established sound. The beats are beacons of light that draw the listener in and the vocals are the sirens locking one in their clutches. It’s relentless and overpoweringly beautiful. In the world of über–prolific experimental musicians, The First Day proves that bvdub is in a class of his own.
-Mohammed Ashraf
