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Ki Oni – Stay Indoors and Swim
Stay Indoors and Swim by Ki Oni Los Angeles ambient artist Ki Oni is here to satisfy your need for twinkling, therapeutic, synthetic-nature-vibes to quiet your incessant inner monologue. Stay Indoors and Swim was originally released as a three-song EP last year and is now expanded to an eight-track album by Ki Oni, the stage name of the artist Chuck Soo-Hoo. Reminiscent of the inside of an aquarium, it’s no surprise to find that the album was inspired by Jacques Cousteau documentaries and Soo-Hoo’s time spent in a lifeguard chair. Floating in piscean blue tranquility, with gentle winds of nostalgia,…
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marine eyes – idyll
idyll by marine eyes idyll is the debut record from Los Angeles-based Cynthia Bernard, aka marine eyes. Cynthia is also half of the electronic ambient duo awakened souls. She worked on this album while her children were sleeping or attending virtual school to create this collection of songs that signify the coming of the spring. idyll is a collection of organic materials coming together – field recordings, synthesizers, guitars, and vocals emulating the sounds of ocean waves, wind through grass, soft rain, dew on budding flowers – intended to create a peaceful, gentle place, much like their namesake hills. Cynthia…
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Fruit Bats – The Pet Parade
Fruit Bats’ ninth full-length album oozes with romance. A missive from isolation, Eric D. Johnson recorded The Pet Parade from deep within the throes of isolation. The opening lines, “Hello from in here to all you out there / It feels like it’s been years,” greet the listener with Johnson’s warm, familiar voice, and a welcome missive it is, a 30-minute portal that allows those of us who may be sick of staying at home to re-examine our own worlds-within-our-homes and feel grateful to be here still. The subsequent songs are amorous odes to domesticity, achingly sincere serenades, and moving…
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If I Could Only Remember My Name
Ah…If I Could Only Remember My Name. A record that has travelled the roads and decades of my life burned into my heart and mind since I bought my first copy in some crumbling cardboard box marked $1 LPs all those years ago. The majesty of this album is in the artist’s ability to elevate the unfinished idea, to let it run in its rawest form completely unbound, the seed of artistic creation unguided and in some cases dissolving rather than evolving in the air before our very ears. Yet, the resulting architecture, like that in a Calvino novella, though…
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Mason Lindahl – Kissing Rosy in the Rain : Review
Kissing Rosy in the Rain by Mason Lindahl In the last year, Tompkins Square has put out some of my favorite guitar albums that share a warm, intimate vibe – Josh Kimbrough’s Slither, Soar, & Disappear, John Lee Shannon’s In & Of come to mind, records that feel like you’re sitting right next to the player, expressive and bright. Mason Lindahl’s Kissing Rosy in the Rain, while still retaining that same intimacy, is on the other end of that spectrum. It’s got a hunger, an introspective moodiness and somber feel reflective of the lonelier side of winter in New York…
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Farmer Dave and the Wizards of the West – FDWOW
Ten years after Farmer Dave’s surf opus Flash Forward to the Good Times, he’s back with Wizards of the West, a collective and constantly-evolving collections of musicians focused on a singular goal of spreading love via music. Where Flash Forward represented water, the eponymous debut of this project is all air and space. That isn’t to say Farmer Dave hasn’t been plenty busy in between, collaborating with Cass McCombs, Jenny Lewis, Kurt Vile, among others; releasing music as half of mysto-folk duo Californiosos; and of course his work with Beachwood Sparks and the Skiffle Players. He also released an EP,…
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Lizzie No – Holidays : Review
Lizzie No is the monarch of wide-eyed, bedroom folk pop, writing earnest, heartfelt songs filled with candid sincerity. Holidays is no different – a short and sweet collection of songs that capture a very relatable array of emotions felt throughout celebratory seasons. As a terminal grinch, I balked upon seeing the title of this EP, but Lizzie reassured me: “This isn’t a holiday EP in the traditional Christmasy sense, but rather a collection of festive moments full of discomfort. Because that’s what holidays mean to me.” “Birthday Party” captures every introvert’s awkward feeling at any gathering, a reminder of what we’re…
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Tim Bluhm – Hag Heaven
Tim Bluhm releases his eighth solo record, an 11-track tribute to Merle Haggard, on November 20th. A portion of all revenue from album sales will go to the Blue Rose Foundation, which provides pre-school scholarships to financially disadvantaged children. I tapped my good friend and fellow critic Jon Siembieda to help listen to this album. Jon is way into the Tim Bluhm/Norther California scene, so he was able to provide some context and counter-points. Jon, unlike myself, is also an actual musician so he has a real ear and eye for the finer technicalities. You can read more of Jon’s…
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Trevor Beld Jimenez – I Like It Here
A lot of folks are going to hear Trevor’s power pop, AM radio gold, sunshine-y Californiana record I Like It Here, out today on Curation Records, and draw some immediate parallels, due to his sun-drenched vocals, his lyrical references, and his history. I’m going to try to avoid leaning on that too heavily in favor of focusing on Trevor’s songwriting, the really amazing instrumentation instated by an impressive line-up of session players, and the heart of the album that shines through. We know that Trevor is a hell of a songwriter and musician. He’s the force that contributed to so…
