Called an “anti-anxiety” song by its creator, ‘Take A Breath’ by San Diego-based musicmaker Scoobert Doobert positively glistens with calm. Chorused guitars splash in wobbly arpeggios above an easy lope of groovesome bass, all underpinned by drums that crunch without being harsh. A sunny, psychedelic ambience exudes from the soft but lightly crisped sounds at work here.
The track was inspired by “this one time that I had sleep paralysis,” Scoobert Doobert says, and features lyrics that document the fear, and the outlandish imagery (Goku from Dragonball flying around the room, anyone?), that can arise in the strangest moments between sleep and waking. And so 'Take A Breath' feels as down-to-earth in its storytelling as it does existential in aesthetic.
This track has a very melting away feeling, the quality of chocolate bars split in half to reveal oozing caramel and various other fillings gloop their way down, the soundtrack for filming an ad for the latest and greatest chocolate bar, the gooey fable of this track, its undeniable sweetness and slacker gluttony, the delicate elegance of it like the gold foil that coils off eager to get your greedy mitts further into the confectionary. That is at least sort of what this track sounds like. The laid-back beat, clacking snares and chilled tapping of hi-hats, the occasional bodyslam of a kick drum full-bodied and thudding, gives 'My Scoobert Snack' the wonky foundation that it needs to continue in that vein, bass guitar blaring deep pockets of robust rumble for that extra horizontal funk.
The Encinitas, California-based multi-instrumental musicmaker Scoobert Doobert has centred the sleepy haphazardly creeping entirety of this track on the guitar however—which is named Scoobert and which may or may not be perceived as a dog also. So there's that: this crunching liquid heavily effected low wah-wah crooning from the guitar, strains of soulful sound that evoke slouching chill, hefty compared to the tiptoeing glassy arpeggios, the dawning glitter of an electric piano, the single synth string rising putting poignancy and sprinkling spookiness into the midst of this half-stoned reverie, the holding-back-laughter giggliness of it, the rising tension sauntering sleepily downstairs, a journey to the fridge in the middle of the night.
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The video for this track – presumably also created by Scoobert Doobert is spliced together snippets of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! made so it looks like the characters are singing the guitar. After a few seconds in this clip really does become the essence of this song.
