Single Reviews: 6 June 2023: Mervyn, Celestial Ground, Kid Travis, TECHNOIR, Music Within & Jay Cliffen
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Mervyn - Control
alternative
From the deepest recesses of the French Republic comes the awesomely industrial sounds of producer and composer Mervyn. On the recent single "Control," the mononymous producer blends highly acidic electronic production with sweeter and more emotive sweeps of melody and mood. The atmosphere is decidedly tense but rewards the more explorative listener with subtle distortion, grand breaks, and mosaic-like manipulations of voices and sounds. While not the most comprehensible song, Mervyn is a new artist, and not much information is available about them. The lack of an artist picture lends an air of mystique to this already mysterious music. "Control" is taken from the two-song EP Holod, which is available now.
Celestial Ground - Cosmic Lila
ambient/experimental
Swiss sonic cosmonaut Alf Jetzer operates under the pseudonym Celestial Ground. It's a fitting name for someone whose music has cosmic ambitions. Layering flute, guitar, and what sounds like either a steel drum or marimba, Celestial Ground's recent single, "Cosmic Lila," shows signs of utility. Jetzer has engaged in transcendental meditation for over 30 years and lives what he describes as a "monk-like" life. This spiritual journey has lent an explorative aspect to his music, which seems to act like a guide to the astral plane, an inducer of theta waves, and a comforting escape from the real world.
Kid Travis - Pretty Eyes
pop
If you're in the market for some guilty-pleasure saccharine pop music, look no further than "Pretty Eyes" from US artist Kid Travis. Replete with whistles, handclaps, and abundant harmonies, the song ticks all the boxes on the pop-pastiche checklist. But its acoustic guitar sound is wonderful, and its contagious sense of optimism, catchy chorus, and Kid Travis's likable vocals and snappy songwriting come right in time for summer. Writing a good pop song is an art unto itself, and Kid Travis shows the right level of judgment here, pushing the accessible and commercial aspects of his fun song just before they tip over into the artificial. The heart is heard even if it has been scrubbed up to near-perfection.
TECHNOIR - Saturate
R&B/electronic
On their recent single "Saturate," the Italian electronic duo TECHNOIR match hazy environments of synths, thoughtful guitar, and percussion with dulcet vocals to connect with the listener before leading them down to a netherworld of eerie but soothing philosophical songwriting ("What is wrong? What is right?") and spacious arrangements of variegated sounds. Based in Milan, the duo consists of Alexandros Finizio and Jennifer Villa, two artists who operate as an idiosyncratic unit and, as evidenced on "Saturate," never adhere to any strict song structure, preferring to ride their own blissed-out wave.
Music Within & Jay Cliffen - Granules
ambient
What's softer than a cloud and lighter than air? The answer could be "Granules," the recent single from Canadian artists Music Within & Jay Cliffen. Music Within is the moniker of Toronto-based composer and musician Rob McAllister, and his work with Cliffen, an Ontarian producer who specializes in textural cassette-based ambient music, results in a merging of the literal and the abstract. A simpler-than-simple piano melody is given life through surges of warm static flourishes and therapeutically ambient production.