It’s well into 2016 and suddenly The Field is back with another album in the exact same format as his earlier work, right down to the album art – what began as eggshell almost a decade ago is now a darker shade of black. Same bag of tricks, shuffled around. What surprise could there be? What’s the point?
The point, it turns out, is that he’s actually getting better at this, and has been for a while.
Where All Is Fled crawled under my skin after a while. I listened, I liked it, and I listened again. Then I kept listening at work. I looped the album every time I drove. This sound world was burrowing its way inside me for weeks before I realized what was happening. The way this album became one of my favorites of the past year was almost… passive aggressive.
This week’s real world brought a deadly terrorist attack in Belgium, while the music world brought the premature death of a hip-hop hero. It was downers all around, and I struggled personally with some dark moments too. At least in my own case, I try to meditate, focus, and seek the healing power of art. This is how I keep perspective.
It’s also how I end up sharing music. Here we go:
Arcology is a huge leap for the sound artist, real name Ryan McRyhew, after 2014’s hypnotic but oppressively dark Death After Life, which made my best of the year list. Instead of scaling up even larger, he’s taken his process apart and rebuilt it with more nuanced, texturally rich pieces. What once felt like dizzying vertigo is now a sprawling maze.
Teebs is one of my favorite artists ever. The guy makes singularly utopian music that I can vibe to for days at a time. The sound is so unique, it’s like a medium itself that the artist simply plays in. I could hear one second of a tune and know it’s his.
Today, I realized I really want to get a friend into his music. This is where I hit a conundrum: which song makes a great introduction? Despite the homogeny of his sound world, there are hooks for the uninitiated, landmarks to guide. I found a good one:
Underworld may finally be settling down, but it’s the most radical thing they’ve done in well over a decade. Instead of reaching to stay one step ahead, the duo of Karl Hyde and Rick Smith sound relaxed and happy to explore their surroundings for once.
One of my many talents is the ability to be surprised, I guess. Because it seems to be happening more and more often lately.
As the news of a Grammy nomination were swirling around CFCF, aka Michael Silver, I noticed a message slipping in: he’s got more music coming soon. Very soon. Like, there’s a full album out right now. It’s called On Vacation.
And so it goes.
Optimistic Underground 