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Spotlight 1
Albums
Aquarelle
Barem
Biosphere
Chubby Wolf
Collard-Neven
Cuni & Durand
FareWell Poetry
Field Rotation
Fonogram
Keith Freund
Freiband
Buckminster Fuzeboard
Harley Gaber
Richard Ginns
Grauraum
Hilton/Phillips
Jenny Hval
Jasper TX
Kenneth Kirschner
The Last Hurrah!!
Letna
The Lickets
Melorman
Penalune
Mat Playford
Radiosonde
Salt Lake Electric Ens.
Will Samson
Janek Schaefer
Phillip Schroeder
Silkie
Sølyst
Swimming
Nicholas Szczepanik
Talvihorros
Kanazu Tomoyuki
Luigi Turra
Watson & Davidson
y0t0
You
Compilations / Mixes
Bleak Wilderness Of Sleep
Lee Curtiss
Deep Medi Volume 3
Goldie
Goldmann & Johannsen
Heidi
Mindfield
Priestley & Smith
SM4 Compilation
EPs
Agoria
Bop Singlayer
Botany
Duprass
Margaret Dygas
Fennesz
Golden Gardens
I Am A Vowel
Mobthrow
Dana Ruh
Botany: Feeling Today
Western Vinyl
On his debut Botany release, the Feeling Today EP, Spencer Stephenson gives us a taste of what we can expect from his forthcoming full-length. A tad reminiscent of the 2008 Dreamsploitation collection Soft Focus Sound of Today, Feeling Today sounds as if the young (twenty-two) Texan sound-sculptor holed up in his bedroom armed with a mini-library of decades-old vinyl and the requisite gear to first plunder and then reshape it into five concise instrumentals of transcendental wonderment. The sound here is a heady breed of kaleidoscopic pop that sounds like it's been stitched together from all manner of recycled materials, samples, and lo-fi musical sources. Faint traces of vinyl crackle give the material a bit of a crate-digging vibe, with propulsion provided by clip-hop beats and shimmering percussion touches. Bells and percussive rumble soak the title track in psychedelic splendour before a willowy swirl of female vocals takes the already trippy sound to an even further level. “Waterparker” sweetens bouyant, stutterfunk rhythms with percussive jangle and angelic vocal riffs, while “Benefactress” turns the lights down low for a brief spell of sparkling serenity and “Agave” takes us out with loping, bass-heavy head-nod. Add it up and you've got eighteen minutes of blissed-out hip-pop that bodes well for the Botany full-length.
September 2011