Moonshine combines immaculate-yet-dense vocal stacks and billowy clouds of effected keyboards with classic songcraft, revealing previously unseen acreage in the unfurling dreamscape that is Nightlands. As Dave Hartley aka Nightlands explains, “Lush music with dark lyrics--this recipe has always made my heart and ears tingle. Brian Wilson was of course a master of this. Smokey Robinson, too. Moonshine is an exploration of that tension. I wanted to pair the serene textures that I've always gravitated towards with lyrics that express the anger and sadness inherent to being an American human.”
“Moonshine”
Inspired by Myst and Studio Ghibli, synthesist Sean Hellfritsch creates dawn-of-digital cinematic textures on this soundtrack for an imagined video game wherein the player embodies a tree frog with the power to hop through geological epochs in order to deeply explore— in Hellfritsch’s words— “the incomprehensibly vast energetic expression and mystery that is Earth.
“Temporal Dryft”
Co-produced by Nate Mendelsohn and frequent collaborator Katie Von Schleicher, The Consistent Brutal Bullshit Gong was recorded between Brooklyn, New York’s Figure 8 and Monterey, Massachusetts’ Gravel Mountain studios, with mixing by Sam Owens (Sam Evian). The album showcases Mendelsohn and his core band of collaborators (Von Schleicher, Natasha Thweatt, Stephen Becker, and Duncan Standish) as they create a dynamic musical world that is at once uneasy, energetic, and beautiful, and one in which its bandleader’s lyrics cut through with humor and intensity.
“Scar”
Since the release of his last album – a collaboration with Brian Eno – pianist and composer Tom Rogerson’s life has undergone a number of dramatic transformations. The first release to feature his singing voice, Rogerson’s debut solo album uses masterful piano playing and subtle electronics to produce a collection that’s both profound and intensely personal. “Oath”, the gorgeous first single, elegantly unveils the composer’s earnest vocals amid a wave of masterful piano playing that conjures sonic images of rainfall on glass.
“Oath”
Via tape loops and synth vignettes sent from Los Angeles to New York City, sound artist and This Will Destroy You co-founder Christopher Royal King teams with violinist and composer Christopher Tignor toward richly timbral, emotionally gripping works of spontaneity that unfurl immense sonic details with each replay while marrying West Coast outboard-ambient to studied East Coast modern classical, respectively. The resulting debut LP, A Wave From A Shore, exhibits both artists’ sonic identities binding into a new entity distinct from either’s solitary palettes. While the record breathes with a sense of yearning easily identified with life in their respective cities, it also conveys a unique resonance between these artist’s distinct musical approaches. +
Rob Burger’s keyboard work can be heard in everything from Guggenheim showcases to the blockbuster film Ocean’s 8 -- in addition to albums by John Zorn, Laurie Anderson, and Iron & Wine -- but the moonlit compositions he spins up on his own may be his most compelling work. His latest solo venture, Marching With Feathers, departs from the controlled exotica and kosmische of 2019’s The Grid towards a genreless seesaw of electrified apprehension and capacious piano rumination. Piano-based tracks like “Figurine” and “Still” draw the listener into a realm of quiet contemplation, while arid psyche vignettes like “Library Science” and “Hotel For Saints” imbue the collection with a vital groove, conjuring images of a searing, high desert plain. +
While crafting the Moonshine EP, Dave Hartley (aka Nightlands) left his native Philly for Asheville, NC, a move that proved fortuitous for the visionary songwriter and producer. Nestled in the rolling green hills of North Carolina, Hartley found a sanctuary in which to weather the pandemic, and quietly process the reality of the world’s climate crisis (and the ramifications as a new father). It also gave him the proper setting to finish his EP and the forthcoming Moonshine full-length album, which will be released in 2022. Anchored by the unmistakable bass lines that have helped make The War on Drugs an undeniable force in modern music, the Moonshine EP incorporates crystalline vocal harmonies, and wafts of enveloping keyboard pads to reveal previously unseen acreage in the unfurling dreamscape that is Nightlands. +
YVETTE’s How the Garden Grows, is the culmination of years of hard work, and countless obstacles. “B61” opens the album with two minutes of spacious clattering atop a nauseous hum, the harmony of which becomes clear when Kardos-Fein’s voice bubbles to the surface. His delivery starts out glassy and melodic only to boil over into a scream midway through the track, creating one of the most aggressive moments on an already aggressive offering. By the song’s end, the mood is complete panic, with Kardos-Fein’s guitar-controlled synthesizer evoking distorted alarms, as if to emphasize the apocalyptic imagery of his lyrics. You can read more and give it a listen here.” +
On his debut Half Mirror, Matthew O’Connell aka Chorusing, aims for the striking minimalism of Tricky and Mark Hollis, as well as Arthur Russell’s and John Martyn’s freeform songwriting, using synthesizers, a Moog delay prototype, electric guitar, and vocals, to explore the sonic possibilities and tensions of merging the analog and digital. Check out the video for lead single “Watching the Beams” here. +
Inspired by a David Lynch quote, Hollie Kenniff’s The Quiet Drift is an ambient gallery of cloudlike synths and shimmering textures guided to cohesion by Hollie’s wordless singing. As we reevaluate our relationship to indoor spaces, and seek refuge in the great outdoors, The Quiet Drift provides an apt soundtrack for such rebalancing. A portion of the sales from The Quiet Drift will be donated to The Nature Conservancy of Canada and a women's emergency shelter and halfway house. +
