Friday 20 September 2013

THERE IS A FOX SLEEP WELL

It is sometimes quite amazing to find out what kind of music is just waiting to be uncovered out there in the wilderness of the internet. It is also easy for people in general to think that good music can only come from respectable sources, record labels, TV, magazines - these are the places you hear a band or music artist playing for the first time, right? Well, the internet is a still pretty-much-untapped vein of talent, with so much uncovered not just daily but semidaily, and hourly sometimes, so it's here that I like to zip around having a look to see if I can hear some nice stuff.

And I did hear some nice stuff just now. So whilst it might not be in keeping with the traditional Friday evening prelude-to-a-big-night kind of party tune that you usually hear at this time of day, I am going to shirk these cultural leanings that I'm so used to and write about this song. It's not a party banger. It's not really energetic. It is, however, very, very pretty - beautiful, even. It's by a track-maker from Long Beach, California, called Hiro Makino who makes music under the alias There Is A Fox. Most of his songs, he confesses, are about "sleeping and staying inside the house" - and that's just fine. Here's 'Sleep Well'.

Priddy. Dont'cha think? I think so. It's really nice. A tension-relieving weave of floating gentle synth and light acoustic guitar arpeggios lead into a swaying breeze of lovely sounds that range from waves of synth to glockenspiel glittering, from subtle synth gleamings to brief electronic bleeps. And the vocals, sleep-inducing, soft, begin the song with the touching line, "I don't know your name, but sleep well tonight" - they're like this throughout. Sentiment is wonderful.

The sounds build up, so by about four minutes in you're treated to varying layers of guitar melodies and other noises - a lovely mix: the musical equivalent of a waterfall hitting the plunge pool - that all calm down perfectly towards the end. All becoming a lot quieter. The vertebrae of bass being all that's left as you hear the microphone switching off. This is an admirable and subtly brilliant mix of ambient guitar and a kind of Lullatone-esque toytronic sound - cutesy, pastel-coloured, sleepy, dreamy. All those things. I really hope he makes some more music.

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Like There Is A Fox on Facebook
Listen to There Is A Fox on Soundcloud
Hear more oto sound (another alias of Hiro) on Myspace
Check There Is A Fox on Tumblr

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