If you hear the first track, “Shitty Karma of Swatting Flies” and progressively feel like you are moving towards the edge of a madness you aren’t very familiar with, you have officially stumbled upon the point. INTERROSPECTIVE is a media project created by San Francisco’s own bran(…)pos that isn’t afraid to overwhelm, if it conveys a certain picture or feeling. The opening track goes from maddeningly chaotic to occasionally, for a lack of a better-fitting term, dreamy, but only if by dreamy, you are thinking of something more…surreal. With high-pitched buzzing noises also contain sounds of clanking metal and clanking plastic. And that is just around the 8-minute mark.
The description still feels tamer compared to the 27-minute experience, but all there is to say is that the descent into the hell that the track creates doesn’t end there. It only gets more fascinating as you go.
“Wartime Care and Maintenance for D.Muscipula” (D standing for “Dionaea”, as in Venus Fly Trap”) is a much slower crawl to the madness, as over grinding cellos, the song sounds like what were to happen is the blues were exoskeletal, and as a result of such a thing, in the four minutes mark, warped and melted cello and vocals liquid in each and every direction possible for the remaining duration. Occasional slimey vocals dance with blipping synths during the 11:30 mark.
In his description, INTERROSPECTIVE is a “series of sonic performance pieces meant as meditations on festering emotional states we humans are blessed and cursed with”. Whether it be a feeling meant to be coax out of its listener or if—as this was improvisational— this was more meant to be a largely therapeutic exercise, either way, the moment you press play, it will be the hardest thing to simply look away or turn it off. Therein lies the power. Just like your own inner thoughts and emotions, no matter how horrid, you’ll always be tempted to let your curiosity get the better of you.
YAMA UBA are no strangers to breaking down walls. Through the strings connecting their previous musical efforts to the seminal album, Silhouettes (releasing January 23, 2024 on Psychic Eye Records and Ratskin Records), the US-based duo of Akiko and Winter has slowly and methodically chiseled a sonic and conceptual world all their own.
Through music videos and selective live performances culminating with a Fall 2023 Japan tour, the duo has been steadily building momentum, but all at their own pace and by their own rules. Silhouettes is the culmination of years of refining a vision over time, yet it feels natural and timeless in the most refreshing way possible. Decaycast team sits down with the duo to discuss their new album Silhouettes and their single “Facade,” which is out today! Listen below, and pre-order the album today.
What ground does Silhouettes cover, musically and conceptually?
Akiko: The album didn’t start out with any particular concept, but just because of the timeframe of our writing — five years, as opposed to one-and-a-half or two years in my previous work, we ended up with something that represented that passage of time in our own lives. I think, more universally, the album also speaks to the long-term process of personal evolution. These songs individually are all about the sometimes-difficult moments that give us an opportunity for reflection, and lead to self-discovery. As a whole, I’d say the album is about personal transformation. It’s about how for that to happen, you have to be willing to shed false or outdated beliefs, confront aspects of your life and self that aren’t fun to look at, and give voice to the parts of yourself that have been silenced.
Winter: Silhouettes covers a lot of experiences and expressions of transforming and transmuting energies. It’s a representation of becoming many different forms of self. It’s one the first recordings of me debuting my vocals and saxophone in a full album. It’s an album we both had full creative freedom with, and we were able to expand musically as much as we felt we needed to. We both went through many changes and transformations throughout this album, and this album portrays and reflects that.
Your latest single is called “Facade.” What is it about?
Winter: “Facade” is about tearing down the walls of false illusion, dismantling any and all power over us that keeps us from being our truest and best selves. It’s a commemoration and celebration of dismantling old structures of belief from a worldwide perspective, within ourselves and outside ourselves, taking down all forms of oppression and injustice.
Akiko: I also think of “Facade” as being about dismantling power and tearing down the illusion of hierarchy. I’ve always had that anarchistic instinct to destroy systemic power structures in the larger world, but this song is about the moment you realize how insidiously those power dynamics are replicated in your own life. It’s about no longer making it your sole responsibility to make a relationship work, and finding the courage to admit that your only way forward is out – out of an abusive situation, out of toxic cycles, out of a social environment that seeks to pigeon-hole, define, or take advantage of you, and out of any structure that is held up by holding you down. It’s about finally breaking free from oppressive power dynamics, and then watching those who held you down fall apart around you. That’s when you can recognize that the abuse you tolerated, to some degree, required your own permission. Even if you get mad at yourself for that, acknowledging and taking responsibility for it becomes its own form of freedom.
We might not individually have the power to stop the most advanced military in history, but we do have the ability to state that the institutional narratives are outright lies, and to simply refuse to be brainwashed… The crack in the facade, and the tumbling of the tower, starts with each of us.
In “Facade,” there is a long refrain of “It’s just a kiss from a narcissist” throughout the outro. What are you referring to?
Akiko: The song is about breaking free of abuse, and that line speaks to how it feels when you realize how cheap and effortless the scraps of recognition or affection are that you receive in uneven relationships. When we sing it, it reminds me how many times I would have to repeat something like that to myself, sometimes for years, to build up the resolve to finally escape an abusive relationship. I think that, as well as the exhilaration of finding your freedom, is something any abuse survivor can understand.
We don’t limit ourselves with our sound and we embrace fully going anywhere we want to go. We utilize anything and everything we can, constantly experimenting and approaching our music in a way that feels exciting.
I also think of those lines in “Facade” as I witness global events, where you can see the dynamic of the narcissistic abuser and the abused in imperialism and in capitalism. It feels very personal to witness, for example, the US and Israeli government committing genocide in realtime, right in front of us. In this case, the US and Israeli governments play the role of the narcissist, who only sees others as tools to get what they want, and not as human beings. In colonization, we see the same tactics used in abusive personal relationships: systemic gaslighting, outright lying, abuse of social and institutional power, enforced isolation of the victim, humiliation and dehumanization, leading finally to physical harm or murder. We see the colonizer’s attacks on culture, history and identity in tandem with attacks on the colonized people’s humanity and on life itself. It’s very similar to how personal attacks, criticism and belittling are a part of a larger campaign for total control in abusive personal relationships.
We might not individually have the power to stop the world’s most advanced military in history, but we do have the ability to state that institutional narratives are outright lies, and to simply refuse to be brainwashed. We can say, “We see you, the richest and most elite people in the world, using all the world’s wealth without our consent, to kill the poorest and the most powerless. You employ weapons of mass destruction to purposely target and kill children, poets, doctors, and teachers, and then you claim a moral superiority.” That has to happen for any other change to take place, and it’s something we’ll always have the power to do. The crack in the facade, and the tumbling of the tower, starts within each of us.
There is a noticeable difference in the sound of Yama Uba vs either of your previous projects, Ötzi or Mystic Priestess. How does the difference in sound palette affect your compositions?
Winter: The difference is there are no bounds in Yama Uba. We don’t limit ourselves with our sound and we embrace fully going anywhere we want to go. We utilize anything and everything we can, constantly experimenting and approaching our music in a way that feels exciting. We are able to break out of our comfort zone to explore and express ourselves in every way possible. One song can portray the energy of tearing down walls and setting fire to everything, while another is about looking at something from a new perspective, and rebuilding everything in a new way.
Akiko: I think because we have less defined roles in Yama Uba than in a traditional band structure, we can start purely from the intentional and emotional root of a song. We can play improvisationally and build off that if we want to, but it’s not required to have a bunch of people jam together until something clicks, and that alone makes a huge difference. It’s more like, “I’m feeling a song about this subject. Here are the lyrics, or here is this guitar line” – and then if we’re both feeling it, we build a world around that emotion, supporting it with whatever seems appropriate. Of course I’m unlikely to take up guitar or saxophone in this band, and Winter is unlikely to take up bass or synth drum programming, but we can have all or none of those instruments at our disposal. There’s no sense that we have to, for example, write a line so the synth player has something to play. Every sound is purposeful and exists in service to the idea, and that is definitely freeing. I think it’s really advanced us both as artists.
Winter’s vocals artfully emanate raw emotion on the tracks “Facade,” “Isolation” and “Claustrophobia.” What led to Winter’s singing on these particular tracks?
Winter: I have always been shown great support from Akiko to sing more. At the time we wrote these songs, we felt it was fitting to capture the raw feeling and emotion in my vocals to signify the atmosphere of those songs. It’s a representation of how overcoming something is not always comforting or pretty. It’s about finding beauty and appreciation in the raw expression of releasing, and to find strength and power within that vulnerability. It’s about truly appreciating and embracing the rawness, no matter what it looks or feels like, because it is the most genuine form of expression.
What inspires you as musicians?
Winter: I grew up listening to a lot of different styles of music. Everything from jazz, pop, punk and heavy metal. I draw inspiration from anywhere and everywhere. I am inspired by any form of expression that portrays a message and deeper meaning.
Akiko: I’ve always enjoyed all kinds of modern music, but in the past few years I’ve become very inspired by traditional musical forms from Japan. I’m learning several forms of traditional music and dancing arts, and by that I mean going back to 800 years ago! I also meditate and do somatic therapies for my chronic illness, which encourages me to sing and to learn scales from non-Western cultures. I’ve been playing music long enough that it’s become inseparable from life itself, so I view music and life in a very holistic way at this point, and as a sort of spiritual path. Everything in my life influences and inspires my music, and my music influences and inspires everything in the rest of my life.
What’s next for Yama Uba?
Akiko: The next release after Silhouettes drops is a 2-CD compilation I curated on my label, Psychic Eye Records, that jointly benefits the people of Gaza and the unhoused community of Oakland, California, where I live. That compilation is called The Ancient Wall, and drops in early February. It has over 40 of my favorite bands, so I’m really excited to get that out there. The Yama Uba song on the compilation is actually “Facade,” so I’d encourage anyone reading this to buy the compilation, which will probably sell out pretty fast!
Then, we’ll have a new music video coming out that I’ve worked on harder than any video in my life, so I’ll be proud of it just being out there and existing. Other than that, I’m trying to learn to not always worry about what’s next, and just enjoy the present. I’ve taken a step back from the sometimes manic-feeling cycle of music production and promotion, and I’m just enjoying this quiet time before Spring. Nothing is fully scheduled yet, but Yama Uba will definitely be touring parts of the US, and is likely to tour Italy, in 2024. Japan was incredibly fun to tour in 2023, so we might go back there in 2024, and maybe to Australia. We’re interested in so many things and so many places that I try to just stay flexible, and be open to the opportunities to come to us.
On Ka’a Davis and Bushmeat Sound System – Dollar Bill Set the World On Fire
Each album that Thomas Bushmeat Stanley (aka Bushmeat Sound System) releases is like a more afrofuturistic take on the “jazz body” theory. Whether it be tackling trance music or letting a bit of noise blast through the speakers, the interpretation concerning whether or not to imagine a much more structured or less cacophonous world or let the mangledness be a soundtrack to said heightened cacophony here in America is up to you. Dollar Bill Set the World on Fire is Bushmeat on synths while On Kaa’a Davis assists with improvised electric guitar. Together, they create an almost electronic/psychedelic take on spiritual jazz. As easy as it is to take it as an audio peek into a world that threatens to get even more dystopic, more maddening with time. The mention in the bio of Sun Ra’s “Alter Destiny” also suggests the music to be a sound of a whole newly constructed universe.
To further assist with this album is Thomas Stanley’s interview of Sun Ra named “Alter Destiny– A Survivor’s Guide”, where the two terms are further broken down by Sun Ra. “You have to use an equation and use the vice future, the alter future. You know, in the church they use the altar, a-l-t-a-r. You got to use a-l-t-e-r, alter; that means change. In other words, you substitute a future for the one you got. The one you’ve got ain’t no good,” says Sun Ra. So, the aim may also be to imagine a whole new, much safer world, but to get there you have to travel out of the more frustrating one.
“A Side of Heaven that Can’t Be Seen From the Ground” unfolds like a flower with a smell as shar pas it is strong. Sounds swirl, beep, skronk like a person who uses rock n’ roll as a refuge to combat the discomfort off a dirty atmosphere. “Black Swans Coming Home to Roost” is where the dust settles and the clanging noise of static may as well be the sound of a clock ticking faster than its normal speed. The sound of the future as we have always imagined it glitching before our eyes and malfunctioning in front of you. The cacophony continues, and even comes to a head, with the more explosive and epic title track. The second epic “A World Without Any White People” knocks and whirrs like an electro track from the 80s spinning out of control with only the sound of faint radio playing synths to guide the journey. The moment you finally landed, you have distorted bells, blinking synth brass to greet those on board.
A bouillabaisse of distorted noise, ambient, free jazz and rock, Dollar Bill Set the World on Fire can be taken as a soundtrack to the revolution, if you want it to be or it can be an album that sounds like what today’s madness sounds like. Either way, with a sense of imagination and focus, Dollar Bill sounds like a slightly distorted vision of a tomorrow you may or may not ever see. –mynameisblueskye
In the vast and ever-evolving landscape of experimental music, there are artists who push the boundaries of sonic exploration, challenging our preconceived notions of music itself. “Signs And Signals” ,” the latest offering from the enigmatic artist known simply as Department Of Works , is a remarkable testament to the boundless possibilities of musical experimentation. Blending elements of psychedelia, intricate beats, ethereal synthesizers, and distant vocals, this album takes listeners on a mesmerizing journey through uncharted sonic territories.
The album starts with distant, almost ghostly vocals that seem to float in the air, setting an otherworldly tone. As the song progresses, layers of synthesizers and subtle beats gradually envelop the listener, creating a sense of anticipation and intrigue. It’s a captivating start that draws you in, inviting you to embark on this sonic voyage.
“Signs and Signals” immerses the listener in a surreal, kaleidoscopic realm of sound. The psychedelic influences are immediately apparent in the swirling, hypnotic melodies and the use of unconventional instruments. The beats here are intricate and unpredictable, creating a sense of constant flux. The distant vocals, though unintelligible, add an ethereal quality that enhances the dreamlike atmosphere. , crafting lush, nostalgic melodies that evoke a sense of melancholic beauty. The distant vocals are used sparingly, enhancing the introspective mood. This album as a whole showcases versatility of a mood and sonic palette, demonstrating an ability to create both frenetic but distant energy and serene moments of introspection within the same album.s ability to craft otherworldly soundscapes while maintaining a sense of emotional resonance is a testament to their artistic prowess. “Signs and Signals” invites you to surrender to its hypnotic spell and embark on a psychedelic journey that will linger in your mind long after the final notes have faded into the ether.
Short blurb from the label:
The Department of Works album ‘Signs & Signals’ is an extension of previous Glove of Bones & Cousin Silas collaborations that also includes musical parts and contributions from Hans Castrup (whose interventions are profound and skilled), izzyhereyet and his colleagues Ursula, Emma & Elliot from RWCMD. Finally, the masked and anonymous ‘Fawkes’, who prompted the creation of the GoB ‘Fawkes Mask’ album. More about that below.
Every artist has a set aesthetic that adds to their art, and no one proves this better than rapper/producers. Whether you are the newscaster, the emo kid, the gangsta or anything, rap music has a tendency to have artists that box themselves in and make it hard to really allow complexities within that. Giovanni Marks is a different animal.
Those who hopped aboard the train either during the subtitle or Giovanni Marks phase, whether he was on Briefcase Rockers, Gold Standard Laboratories, or his own Get Crev Labs, will notice his aesthetic/role is of the cyberpunk, the scientist, the afrofuturist, the nerd with the Kid n’ Play haircut and Dracula cape. If hip hop is currently in its punk rock phase, Giovanni Marks is the New Wave/synthpunk with colored hair, jumpsuits and plenty of electronic instruments to hook up on stage. But while that aesthetic can give way to ideas of being introverted or reclusive, 2 Plaza 2 suggests that this spacey, futuristic aesthetic that Marks has been cultivating for years during his time as an MC is a universe that anybody can take part in.
2 Plaza 2 is a project that finds GIovanni Marks taking a backseat from rapping to assist friends like Juan Huevos and pink siifu with the avant-garde production he is known for. Take the opener, for example. A slow red siren rumble of synth bass giving way to an anonymous rewound sound all adding up to a sound that is as musically unsettling as it is fascinating. That is just “Alternative C”, which bears the subtitle of being the “nox-vox version”. While you are busy working out how the vox version would be delivered, singer Joseph Squire transforms a stomping noiresque beat into a seductive R&B track that leaves before you find yourself really falling into the groove.
Friends from art-rapper/multidisciplinary artist Koreatown Oddity, Pink Siifu and Mason Williams all come in to give color to Marks’ production from the rallying “Baby Teeth” to the intergalactic stream-of-consciousness delivery in “all night long” (which is delivered as both a regular track and a “space dub”) to the bounce of “Samuraid Hott” that will surely have trouble evading Shabazz Palaces vibes. They all may sound like fragments of ideas underneath a half-hour, but the shift from style to style is fascinating enough not only to keep your attention, but to likely leave you wanting to revisit such world all over again.
2 Plaza 2 can be described as a front row seat into Giovanni Marks’ world of spacey production, but what is different about this project, it’s that it insists that this electronic/avant-rap universe he has been building for years now isn’t only for him.
“Cats From Venus” is the newest full length offering from Bay Area stalwart and all around magical musical hybrid presence MAYA SONGBIRD, who between runnings her own label, Wired Weird Entertainment, The Magic Shop – a brick and mortar retail space in Oakland, CA as well as producing events, and meticulously handcrafting merch of a myraid of shapes and sizes, including a custom candle line which has garnered a cult following around the bay area, has found time to give us another stunning full length record of her signature style. “C F V has all the signature Maya Songbird musical stylings; retro, sexy synthesizers which create movement in the mind and body for even the most sour wallflower. “C F V” gives track after track of unmatched vocal performances over her queer and funky brand heavy electronic post punk / disco. A collection of ten soon to be favorites dance numbers which will last through your next three breakups.
“You let me know I’m not appreciated”
The songs on ” C F V…” are powerful, quirky femme anthems and demand their own space and time from each other and other works in the “genre” as a whole. “C F V” is a special and beautifully honest and unique album which only Maya Songbird can create. On “I Don’t Ever Have to Be Nice” the artist belts out the empowering, lines of self actualization over a heavy, hypnotic beat and stirs a pot of seductive sweets and spices for the perfect recipe of self empowerment.
“Cats From Venus” is Songbird’s most fully realized full length project to date. Released by Oakland, CA’s Psychic Eye Records “Cats From Venus” combines queer disco beats ala Patrick Cowley’s productions for Bay Area disco legend Sylvester, funky, sweaty, sensual, funky post-punk freaked out numbers topped with iconic vocal performances from Songbird on nearly every track. “Cats From Venus” is the queer party album packed with anthem after anthem lined up in a row for this fall 2022 which has left us in a world that’s both at once gifting beauty and breaking apart at the seems. We need Maya Songbird’s “Cats From Venus” now more than ever, but do we deserve it?
Via the artists website maysongbird.com, the artist states about “Cats from Venus” –
“This album I got a chance to really speak my truth and heal especially on human life/Live Again. I honestly can say when Live Again was recorded I was going through something tough. Promise me you will listen to every word I wrote on this song ok? Its really dope how Amelia the producer had driven up to oakland from la and we recorded I think “Live Again” and “You should be dancing” in my living room space.”
“Disco Bill” is one of the albums creative peaks, as it has the potential to move a room of thousands all the way down to driving a singular dance party at the end of an earbud. “Seduction”, another banger that’ll have you take over the steering wheel from the bus driver and crash the bus into a pond filled with LSD and neon pool noodles as you scatter away to the party, set a cop on fire to light the room just to make love on the dance floor.
Available on Cassette and CD from Psychic Eye Records and Wired Weird Ent now!
GRST ‘container+=object EP’’s pleasingly adjunct description states only that it relies upon ‘a variety of electro-acoustic techniques and physical modelling’, eschewing any form of wild conceptual structure in favour of a more detailed sonic study. Connoisseurs of physical modelling synthesis will no doubt recognise its presence – we’re not dealing with bold new territories here, but rather some extremely pensive, rhythmically free wanderings that travel from additive washes to organic plucks and rattles. The absence of any measurable pulse is perhaps ‘Maracaibo’s’ strongest feature – its textures are allowed to ebb and flow between various synthetic states without ever feeling pressured to reveal a defined compositional logic.
In contrast, the second track, ‘aruba’, invokes a distinctly modular tact, tying bursts of reverb to the gestating clangs and urgent bounces across glass and metal. We get some nieve stabs at melody, too, meandering repetitions that dance back and forth like the song of a sinister, cartoon music-box. Theres no development proper, nor does there need to be – ‘container+=object’ works precisely because it sets up a limited palette and then proceeds to meekly explore its affordance, the listener invited to observe as GRST tests the sonic properties of each corner in turn.
– Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully
Daniel Alexander Hignell-Tully is a composer, video and performance artist from the UK. He produces work under the Distant Animals moniker (www.distantanimals.com), and runs both the production company 7000 Trees (www.7000trees.com) and the Difficult Art and Music label (difficultartandmusic.bandcamp.com). He holds an actual proper grown-up PhD in contemporary music, and currently lectures at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama.
Basement Tapes has released a collection from noise/sound artist Jacob DeRaadt’s STERILE GARDEN project titled “Winter Rituals” celebrating the fifteen year birth of the project- four cold alienating and low meditations on the ripping cold and isolation of the darkened winter. STERILE GARDEN has always carved out a sonic style all their own and although this release spans many years of rituals, the tones and vibe are unified in their chilling barren presentation. Harsh, creasing walls of crumbling icebergs create cavernous of Shining like chase scene slow motion decay.
White noise gusts envelop hidden textures as glacial distortion melts out of the earths crust. Dark, haunting, and meditative, “Winter Rituals” is isolationist sounding noise/drone for an endless season of frigid messages drying up frozen on an archaic stone. Hauntingly meditative and warmly rewarding for such a dark and sinister meditation. Highly appropriate for the season, now is the perfect time to order “Winter Rituals”. Beautiful cold music.
WOBBLY “Popular Monitress“to be released on cassette, CD, and digitally on 2/5/2021
Brand new high intense edit explosion from Negativland member, longtime radio show plunder-host/criminal, collaborator of hundreds near and far from People Like Us to Matmos to Thurston Moore, to now an army of touchscreen IOS nano bots- Wobbly aka Jon Leidecker. “Lent Foot” from his forthcoming album on Hausu Mountain, out 2/6/2021 titled “Popular Monitress“ . the album’s lead single, is an explosive electronic sandstorm fused together with textbook Wobbly-esque precision maneuverings amidst controlled chaos. Bloop alien-explosion tone poem comes etched into frantic speaker cones channeling an army of puzzling and buzzing IOS midi war-machine events from the future. “Lent Foot” then blasts into hyperdrive 8-Bit Stevie Wonder bass collapsing down the rear stairwell, as arches of folding warped cartoon glitched foley pillars roughly and jitterly try to prevent the full tumble all the way down the mental metal twisted staircase of synth and beat chaos. A perfect express of the Haus Mo sound and ethic-electronic explosion of the highest and densest order. Once again Wobbly does not disappoint for the maximalist sound-horder and psychedelic ear fiend
San Francisco-based multimedia artist, composer, and improviser Jon Leidecker makes music under the pseudonym Wobbly. He is an active member of both the seminal experimental group Negativland, and with the Thurston Moore Ensemble. Over the course of a varied musical practice that began in the mid-1980s, Wobbly has collaborated with artists including Matmos, Dieter Moebius (Cluster), Tania Chen, Fred Frith, Tim Story, David Toop, Zeena Parkins, and People Like Us.
Highly recommended.
PS. While you’re here check out this GUEST MIX Hausu Mountain busted for us last year. Ripe for a new listen.
DECAYCAST Reviews: Laura Luna Castillo “Tuberose” ((Whited Sepulchre Records, 2020)
Ohio’s Whited Sepulchre Records brings us another underground gem with the hauntingly moving and inspirational new album from Laura Luna Castillo exploring themes of time/place, fragrance and experience, and the sound waves a wonderfully complicated line between all of these. The sounds present on “Tuberose” evoke unknown histories as worlds with a dash of familiarity, like a distant world buried deep within the subconscious rhizome. The sound is both ethereal and cinematic, often holding a powerful tension both compositionally and within the sounds themselves. It’s the music for a slow growing tree; it stretches only inches between the time we are born and when we die, yet we can still be transfixed on it’s beauty, power and growth.
The natural world. and it’s sights and sounds, isn’t something foreign to the artist and her practice. Castillo states, ““I was inspired by the book “The art of perfumery, and method of obtaining the odors of plants” by G.W. Septimus Piesse from 1857 in combination with the exploration of the study of time, memory loops, ephemeral and elusive memories.
Oscillating in sonic zones akin to Terry Riley, Meredith Monk, A Silver Mount Zion/GYBE, the ambient sections of Neurosis, and early Wendy Carlos, Castillo blends experimental compositional techniques with stunning epic, over-arching movements in sound and space. These compositions hold great tension in many different moods, which Castillo stitches together flawlessly, as they shift between haunting, and reaffirming, morose, and explosive. Huge moments happen with the space of a few seconds, and yet, we have to dedicate our mind and ear to the entire journey and it’s slower changing moments as well, as they necessitate their own timelines of experience. A vastly complex and interesting album for so many different reasons which are better heard than read about . Castillo’s sounds, like nature, are complex, complex in detail in the most rewarding ways, at times unsettling even, but overall present as an abundance of sonic beauty. Powerful powerful music, hard to classify, and what’s even the point, just go buy it here.
D E C A Y C A S T Magazine 