Single Reviews: 21 April 2023: Courtney Farren, Gaetha, Klinger, Movie Club, The Cosmic Hour

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Courtney Farren – Happy

alternative pop


San-Franciscan vagabond Courtney Farren spent much of her youth and young-adult life moving around. This has lent a sense of experience and wisdom to her songs, which all have a youthful vivacity even as they turn to low-tempo sadcore introspection. Although her first EP, Nothing Like It, was recorded when the writer was just 18, Farren recalibrated and moved to a remote village in Croatia to reimagine her sound. The years following this sojourn in Europe saw Farren return to California and mix Mediterranean romance with trendy West Coast sensibilities. Her newest EP Rabbit King is an up-close and charming collection of four alternative pop songs. On “Happy”, Farren subtly mixes birdsong into a piano ballad that is memorable for its simplicity and the easy recognizability of the emotion behind the words and playing.
 









Gaetha – Mirage 

ambient


Gaetha is the moniker of Iranian-born sound artist Abtin Sadati. Sadati, who is currently based in the Netherlands, postulates immersive soundscapes by way of electronic sounds that have been manipulated to appear as though they are growing from the earth. Taken from the debut EP Beyond, the single “Mirage” has a desert-like scope, the intensity of its synthetic instrumentation and trailable keys rising and falling like sand dunes as the blistering brightness of the frequencies bend towards a more moonlit and calming low end. An effective way to escape reality for just over four minutes.

 











Klinger – Orbit

neoclassical

Klinger is the mononym of German composer and producer Christoph Klinger. Klinger comes from the southern town Rosenheim, but relocated to Hamburg after graduating from Philosophy studies. After releasing two pandemic-inspired EPs from 2020 onwards, the artist has birthed the debut album, Mosaik. From that album comes the single “Orbit”, on which he fuses sweeping cello and earthy percussion with an inspirational chord progression to create a track which transcends normality with audibly grand ambitions before circling around its gravitational centre like the title suggests. A breezy, effortless ride with a nice view.

  

  








Movie Club – Spinner

instrumental rock 

From Venice, California, psych rock duo Movie Club blast through hooky melodies and repeating patterns on “Spinner”, a single taken from their second full-length album Great White. Drummer Jessamyn Violet and guitarist Vince Cuneo on guitar make up this deliciously carefree duo who may not have much glitz nor glamour, but who have enough panache to take their straightforward psychedlic instrumental rock stunts to epic places. 









The Cosmic Hour – 90 Billion Celestial Spheres

ambient


The auditory delights of Austin, Texas duo Madelyn Carr and Joseph Salazar, collectively known as The Cosmic Hour, are as transportive as they are amusing. Not only does the amalgam of endlessly wandering synths and more unsettling musical phrases make this track a vehicle for reaching a dreamlike state of mind, but the addition of sporadic coarse textures and heavenly vocals offer some in-flight entertainment. The duo’s first ever release, the epic, 12-plus-minute “90 Billion Celestial Spheres”, is a captivating opening proposition from these sonic cosmonauts.

 

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