The last few days’ posts have been pretty crazy. There was music from a spasmatic Noise-Pop quartet, a glittery Disco and Funk-infatuated Indie-Pop band and a rubbery avant-leaning electronic Dance Pop duo. It’s all been rather exhilarating if you ask me. Perhaps too much so?
An abundance of manic experimentation and urgent dance-party rhythms can be a little overstimulating. And since Autumn is in full swing and bringing a refreshing October chill to the air here in New England I think it’s time to cool things off here on the blog too. At least for a day or two. But where do I turn? To chilly beats, ambient soundscapes and colorful instrumentation that flips, whirls, drifts and flutters like the leaves that’ll soon be falling from the trees outside.
The first of the two artists I’m featuring today, San Francisco-based electronic musician Hatchback a.k.a. Sam Grawe, is the more categorically “chill” of the pair. Not only are his proggy, Kraut-Rock-inspired tracks undeniably “chill out” music, the synthetic tones the music is contoured out of often feel quite “chilly.” But his LP Colors of the Sun isn’t just icy robot music. As the title suggests, it reflects the prismatic colors of a Fall landscape set ablaze by the afternoon Sun as well.
Tracks like “Nesso” and “Comets” where early-’80s-sounding synths & keys are superimposed on chunky drum-programming recall Dilla at his most techno-industrial or the Human League if they dug for breaks. “Jetlag” and “White Diamond” are rooted in the druggy spaced-out traditions of Euro-Disco. “The Lotus and the Robot” sounds like the love-theme OMD never recorded for a fictional ’80s movie where Molly Ringwald plays a cyborg. “Horizon” could pass for something Vangelis made for a real ’80s movie about cyborgs. While standout “Closer to Forever” is a dreamy downtempo Disco cut that sounds like Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams” after a Jamie Starr/Paisley Park makeover.
Hatchback “Closer to Forever”
There’s far more “fluttering” happening on Frolicfon, an album released early this year by Tokyo-based musician Keiichi Sugimoto under the alias FilFla. In fact, the free-flowing Post-Rock that tumbles out of he and his collaborators (including Blogarhythms alum Moskitoo) on this album sounds for the most part like the audio equivalent of a couple of rambunctious kids capering about in a pile of fallen foliage. I mean, the word “frolic” can’t be part of the title for no reason, can it?
Percussive, Jazz-flavored album-opener “Ticking” explodes in an instrumental burst of brightly-colored shapes as synths whistle and twitter like birds over cymbal splashes and awkwardly romping drumming. The songs featuring whispery vocal contributions from Moskitoo are my favorites. There’s “WST,” a swaying Indie-Pop tune with prickly guitars and a shuffly Disco beat, “Lumo,” a stripped-down click-pop-n-hum Lap-Pop tune, and “Some Frolics,” which ups the tempo on all the playfully micro-edited sounds, adding a skipping Afro-Latin or Carribean-influenced rhythm. While “Pine,” which features guest Ryan Francesconi on vocals, guitar and banjo, is a trancey, glitched-out ambient lullaby
FilFla “Lumo”
Songs that change direction at the drop of a dime, incorporate fifteen disparate genres in under 5 minutes, or are intended to soundtrack dancefloor calisthenics are fine. But so are songs that you can chill out, or even space out to. Both Colors of the Sun and Frolicfon boast more than a few selections that clock in at well over the 5 minute mark, and they’re the sort of hypnotic jams which give the listener an opportunity to assimilate into the groove.
I’m talking about ambient chill-out music that’s energetic and won’t lull you to sleep. So if you’re yearning for a change of pace that’ll cool you out but keep a little boogie in your step you can’t go wrong with either one.
