Train Dreams And Undiscovered Shores

Secret Soul Society released a new EP two weeks ago on a Madrid based label Rare Wiri. Train Dreams has five tracks. The first, Take Me In, is a lovely slice of Balearic pop with warm padding drums, sunshine synths and a vocal declaring, 'something's happening in my heart'. The title track Train Dreams follows, pulsing Italo disco crossed with Kraftwerk style rhythms and bursts of synth noise and lasers. There's a remix of Train Dreams too by Popsneon which takes the train into cosmic disco territory. 

In the middle of the EP is Everybody Needs A Good Friend, a rather beautiful piece of electronic Balearica. The vocal, just two lines of lyric, might be familiar to some of you. Everybody Needs A Good Friend and the other four tracks on Train Dreams can be found at Rare Wiri's Bandcamp here.

Brighton's Higher Love Recordings have been quiet of late but return to action with an EP by Mass Density Human called The Undiscovered Shore- a trio of tracks based around the idea of coastlines, imaginary shores and the borderlands between sleep and being awake. Do You bumps in with some crashing drums but the synths and piano chords gradually take it to more chilled territories- heavy waves crashing on shores followed by smaller, gentler ones maybe. 

The Body is full of fluid, liquid bass and gently rippling synthlines, a voice occasionally muttering something, like hearing someone when you're half asleep. The Undiscovered Shore is all ambient beauty, layers of drones and notes falling like water droplets, seagulls squawking and then more piano. Another voice, this one talking about rescue, and six very lovely minutes of drift. You can get The Undiscovered Shore here. 

You've Got To Let Go

This summer sounding house track came my way courtesy of Cal Gibson, whose Secret Soul Society have featured here previously a couple of times. You've Got To Let Go is by Pilots Of Peace, all sunshine and holidays, with skippy house drums, pianos, a happy go lucky feel and a sense that all could be right with the world if we just leaned in and listened to each other. It's out on French label Citizens Of Vice- releasing it in late October rather than early August seems counter- intuitive but given that the leaves have only just started to turn orange and brown everything seems a little off at the moment. Feel good and smile inducing music. There's an EP, Drop The Pilot, here.

Also out on Citizens of Vice is Meraki, a six track compilation EP at Bandcamp. Meraki starts out with some gorgeous, weightless ambience from Mass Density Human and follows it with Crooked Man's deep and dubbed out Illyiran Song, seven minutes of absorbing and entrancing music. 

Sons Of Dub's Sons Of Dub comes next, a disorienting and head spinning way to spend four minutes of listening time. With three more tracks, one each from Lanowa, Offshore And Coen and Stacattoman, Meraki is a high quality, value for money EP. Meraki is a Greek word that does not translate into English well but is something like this- 'you leave a piece of yourself, your soul, creativity, and love in what you do... to put a little bit of yourself into something'.

Monday's Long Song

On Saturday, the leaves all started to suddenly appear rust and gold among the green, the sort of sight that says proper autumn, beautiful spread of colour and crisp blue skies. Not for long though. On Sunday it rained heavily all day, the leaves turning to sludge in gutters and puddles. 

To add insult to injury, Boris Johnson returns too, a man removed only three and half months ago from office for lying and lawbreaking, now suddenly seemingly the answer to the Bizarro world of the Conservative Party and it's ongoing psychodrama that the rest of us are forced to live in. 

Here's some genuine beauty to compensate from Brighton's Higher Love label today and their recently released Vol. 2 compilation. The closing track is by Mass Density Human, a gorgeous twelve minute piece of music called Emulate which when you describe makes it sound like less than the sum of its parts- some long drawn out synth chords, a pulsing bassline, some electronic drums, a plinking sound, like a pipe being tapped with a metal tool. Emulate builds into something epic, space age and futuristic, music to soundtrack lives and moments, climbing ever upwards. As the track heads on into eight, nine, ten minutes, you start to wonder whether it can or even should ever end.  

Higher Love Vol 2 can be bought here.