Album Reviews: Natural Information Society, Godcaster, Living Pictures

Natural Information Society - Since Time is Gravity

experimental/jazz/folk

Natural Information Society's epic, carefree experimentalism rings out across Since Time is Gravity, an album of spacious and meditative instrumental music. This massage-like music features repetitive and drawn-out acoustic melodies, such as on "Murmuration". However, this masseuse can shove the elbows in deep, as seen on the tense ugliness of the off-kilter "Stigmergy". Joshua Abrams started Natural Information Society in 2010, and time has given the collective that has gravitated around him confidence, such as with the stunning tenor saxophone work by Ari Brown on the closing track "Gravity". Yet it's on the simple "Wax" and "Wane", where Abrams wails out guembri solos, that the project's boisterous spirit is best represented and executed. ★★★★½

Godcaster - Godcaster

noise rock

Please don't make the same mistake as me and have your volume up to 100 and headphones on when you press play on New Jersey melodic-noise merchants Godcaster. Vocalist Judson Kolk has plenty of conviction and intrigue in his delivery of stream-of-consciousness obscuria. This dark music reaches intense levels of noise, from the screaming voice and guitar on the opening track "Diamond's Shining Face", to the Radiohead-esque acoustic rock of "Vivian Heck", and the ten-minute broken-record slog of gritty brilliance on "Didactic Flashing Antidote". The surprising turn to gentle romanticism on "Albino Venus" is also noteworthy, as is the mile-a-minute onslaught of the kind of reckless energy and fun you'd expect at a kid's birthday party on closing track "Gut Sink Moan". ★★★★

<a href="https://godcaster.bandcamp.com/album/godcaster">Godcaster by Godcaster</a>

Living Pictures - Crossing the Bridge

electronic

Portlanders Reif Larsen and Andrew Perreault, otherwise known as Living Pictures, have released "Crossing the Bridge", a debut album full of bold synthetic textures and an abandonment of style in the name of chill, fun electronic music. This quite innocent soundscape combines driving grooves and cinematic ambience to superimpose layers of fantastic imagery over the drab, with its use of colorful tones that switch between focused rhythms and instrumental imagery. While some sounds might be overly synthetic and some layers feel excessive, and the mix overly clean, the sentiments of the composition are perennially optimistic and charming. ★★★