OPM: Ambient, Lo-Fi, Prog & More

Dual – Keimar Sty

A deep and complex longform ambient and soundscape workout. There’s lots of slowly evolving tones and timbres, some dips into almost minimal techno, and frequent forays into weird sound design interludes full of squishy, clanking and clicking effects. 

It’s the kind of thing that is super easy to zone out to while you’re doing something else, but it rewards closer attention as well. One thing it does require is patience – nothing is happening quickly here, and every sound, rhythm and glitch seems deliberate and meaningful. It’s up to you whether you take the time to unwrap what it has to say, but it seems worth the effort.

(Listened to the entire album)

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Mute Branches – Mountebank

A three-track concept EP about confidence men, expressed as gentle indietronica and lo-fi ambient-adjacent experimentalism. The first track pairs an indie-friendly vocal with a lo-fi electronic rock beat that falls somewhere between the Books and Pinback. 

The remaining two tracks ditch the vocal for more abstract explorations of similar territory, with the second track “Friends of the Library” embracing post rock vibes, and the final, “A Proud Oil Town,” evolving into full blown soundscape experimentalism with its warped vocal samples and shifting tones. All told, an intriguing and multidimensional release.

(Listened to the entire EP)

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We Walk the Earth – “Phenomenology” 

A dark, slow-building rock song with a brooding vocal and nice guitar work. This seems to be influenced by late ‘90s/early ‘00s alt rock, slowcore and post rock. It’s minimal, moody and heavy, conveying a sense of inertia and mass despite the small-scale guitar-bass-drums-vocals arrangement and slowed down tempo. 

Then it builds into a series of micro crescendos for that post rock juice before making a graceful exit. There’s also a remix that recasts those pieces with some synthetic tones and glitchy effects to add a little IDM/experimental gloss – it’s fun, but the original is the superior take. 

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The Missing Worker – Behold… a Machine!

Heavy, sprawling, ambitious post-hardcore psychedelic prog in the vein of a slightly less dense Mars Volta, or maybe Tool on a hardcore kick. Chunky guitar riffs crash around driving drum beats, shouted/sung vocals come in over the top and everything moves at a pace just below “breakneck.” 

I’ve always felt that prog and the more musically developed strains of hardcore were highly compatible, so it’s pleasantly gratifying to see my hypothesis proven by acts like this putting those pieces together into such appealing packages. If you like complex rock music with a heavy edge, this is definitely worth a spin or two.

(Listened to tracks 2, 3, and 5)

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Antoine Guigan – Sailors

Melancholic modern folk-pop with a flair for the dramatic. Vocals that fall somewhere between Nick Cave and Leonard Cohen are accompanied by fairly standard (for the style) arrangements – acoustic guitars, piano, etc – and just a touch of studio gloss to add some depth. The subject matter is, as suggested by the title, centered on sailors, and each song tells a story of sorts.

It’s not flashy or trendy in any way, but literal generations of music were made in this vein with no complaints from anyone involved. Whether it vibes with you is going to depend largely on whether the songs speak to your particular tastes, so give a couple of them a shot and see.

(Listened to tracks 1, 3, 4, and 6)

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