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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
Golden Gardens: The Somnambulist Remixes
Automation Records
Golden Gardens duo Aubrey Rachel Violet Bramble and Gregg Alexander Joseph Neville characterize their sound as “Dreamscapes and Anthems for Magical Minds,” a succinct and fairly apt description for the music the long-distance collaborators release (Bramble and Neville are Seattle- and Florida-based, respectively). Though the group's sound comes out of the dreampop and shoegaze traditions, it's a tad more dreamy than the norm (due in part to a self-professed love for fairy-tale literature, among other things), and consequently “dreamgaze” might serve as the most useful handle, even if phantasmagoric might just as easily spring to mind.
But let's not forget that The Somnambulist Remixes, a thirty-eight-minute limited-edition cassette release, is a remix collection, so what we're hearing is the group filtered through the madcap sensibilities of contributors. And a madcap ride it is, though it's also (depending on who's in control), on occasion, relatively clear-headed. In a so-called “Lizzy” remix, Cex (Rjyan Kidwell) twists “Elizabeta” into mangled electro-pop funk shape, with quirky flickerings of electronic noise darting out like tentacles while a quasi-hip-hop beat saunters merrily alongside. Just as trippy, nonnon's (Dave Madden) “Pareidolia” remix of “The High Priestess” dishes out a stomping, clatter-funk maelstrom of chopped vocals and mind-melting experimentalism, though some semblance of nightmarish control sets in during the closing minutes. Teras's “Sometimes In The Moonlight” remix of “Paresseux” comes across like some desperate night-time invocation, with the male vocalist pouring out his soul in an impassioned plea against a swollen, synth-heavy backdrop, and after an intro of crackly strings gets things underway, Phantom of the RIAA's “Paresseux” remix turns into a 4/4 techno thumper with Violet Bramble's Julee Cruise-like vocals riding o'ertop.
Not insignificantly, two of the strongest tracks come courtesy of the group itself. Joseph Neville turns “The Uselessness of Enchantment” into a beautiful, Badalamenti-esque instrumental of vaporous cloudscaping, while the group's “Invocation of the Violet” remix of “Paresseux” offers a luminous glimpse into an imaginary dreamworld. The tracks are so satisfying, in fact, they make one want to also track down the group's originating Somnambulist EP.
September 2011