☟YES/NO☟: Starlit Everglades

Showing posts with label Starlit Everglades. Show all posts

Sunday, 20 April 2014

STARLIT EVERGLADES – PRETTY ARCADE EP

It was many moons ago, many many moons ago, that I first encountered this particular musicmaker. In fact, I think the last time I wrote about him was back in July 2013. Since then, well – everything has been a whirlwind of uncontrollable speed. It's impossible to keep up with everything all the time. But who cares? Whatever right? RIGHT? So, anyway, this is Starlit Everglades and a long time ago I found his music, wrote about it – in particular his tune 'Mylotic' – enjoyed it. He made a kind of soaring lo-fi dreamscape, a majestic unearthly sound that seemed to gallop through your mind with all the relaxing intensity of a phantom horse.

But now, now now now – now is a different story. Fast forward for um however many months it's been and we arrive here, where Starlit Everglades is releasing a new EP that sounds gloriously different to his earlier stuff. It's quite incredible, the development that's gone on here. Hip hop influences abound, perhaps more trip hop, and the quality is higher than ever – he's clearly improved as a producer and it's really great to hear it. The EP is called Pretty Arcade and it sounds a bit like this (although I think this is just a preview).

It works as a series of three connected tracks. In title, it moves from a 'Pretty Arcade', to asking somebody 'Twirl For Me', and finally the command 'Undress' – as if on a date, the mood becomes one that is hungry for romance, if not outright lustful. In sound, too, it feels as if this is a journey from the realistic, grounded beats of 'Pretty Arcade', with its bubblesome electronics, coin-grabbing samples and recordings of real-life public places (maybe an arcade, and perhaps even a pretty one); through 'Twirl For Me' whose playful romance and dreamy sensuality – in the super-reverbing breathy vocal samples, glistening glockenspiels, tick-tocking almost urgent beat and filmic strings – echo that post-date feeling, if everything has gone well, of walking together, wandering, meandering the streets with no particular inclination or even care as to where you're heading.

And then there's the end: 'Undress'. It's a blanket of hyper nostalgia with an intro of crackles that make it seem as if the hairs on the back of your neck are sticking up, a pre-sexual out-of-body experience, a sense of wonder at what you're beholding – waves of thick synth like rose-tinted visions pulse in time with the heart-thudding catch-your-breath kicks, with breathless vocal samples whispering pleasure into the starry void of the track.

In another sense, these 3 illustrations hide as if under a haze of nostalgic memory, a set of sounds that seem to have encased heady remembrances forever behind their dreamlike mists, as if perhaps they look better – more idealised – through this fog of time and creativity, or as if memories themselves promote this hazy sound thanks to their intoxicating nature. So basically, this is Starlit Everglades, these are his sounds: a surprise EP that will whisk you away to somewhere beautiful, either imagined or real, on a cloud of hushed, lo-fi synth powered by gently intricate yet firm beats.

This is out on UK label Slime Recordings 21st April (& you can probably get it from their site)
Here's an interview with Starlit Everglades exclusively for YES/NO (mmmhmmmmmmmmmm)

Like Starlit Everglades on Facebook
Listen to Starlit Everglades on Soundcloud
Hear more Starlit Everglades on Myspace
Follow Starlit Everglades on Twitter
Check Starlit Everglades on Tumblr
Watch Starlit Everglades on YouTube

Tuesday, 20 August 2013

LAZY INTERVIEW #10: STARLIT EVERGLADES

← #9: METOME #11: YOSI HORIKAWA →

Right now, I am sitting here listening to a new 2-song EP, Psalms of the Planets by Starlit Everglades. It's only a day old and I haven't had time to cover it. In time, I will. But I am sitting outside and the sun is still pretty high in the sky but it's gradually making its way down; frankly, it's kind of the perfect music to chill to. It is kind of the ultimate in chill, ambient and lo-fi all smushed together in a beautiful wave of wordless endless reverb. And very nice it is too.

Of course, I have written about him before, particularly his song 'Mylotic' - check it out.

Very kindly, Mr S. Everglades has come back to the Q&A that I have dubbed the "Lazy Interview" - simply because I use the same questions every time. But, as anyone who has read more than one of these on YES/NO will tell you, the answers are always rather different and, since I think they're quite nice questions, I thought: why ruin a decent formula? Why indeed. So without further waffle, ado, chit-chat, etc. please enjoy the inner workings of this producer.

Who are you? Where are you from? What do you do?
　My name is "J/Aj/or アジェイ" (Starlit Everglades/スターリット　エバーグレーズ). I am from places. United States or Japan. I am an ordinary college student who makes music for friends/families/Trees/Sun/Moon/Gods/Goddesses and mystical ancient animals.

Why did you decide to start creating music?
　That is a very hard one for me. I keep trying to say to myself this is the reason, but it just doesn't feel right. Like "was this the reason I started creating music?" I found the reason. I create music for... I guess special moments. Moments like you wish they will never end so you hold onto every second of that moment. For example. There was a time at the beach where the sky was teal coloured and clouds were pink. I was laying on the sand, laughing, smiling with friends. The sun started to disappear gently, the moon rises, lighting things with our lighters while eating ice-cream, I wanted to make something that will not be forgotten, a memory that will never die out. That is the reason why I make music. Something that can stick with you forever and not be forgotten... a memory that will never be broken.

How would you describe your sound? What makes you and your style stand out?
　I sometimes make up names for myself just for fun haha like "Pearl Dive Hop//beat music". It's for fun! But for others, ambient/chillwave/dreamwave or "glo-fi"...... in fact there are a ton of genres that describe my music from what I have seen. Some of them I never even heard of ever. I guess what makes my music stand is probably the positive glittery noises that emerge from my music.

Is there a perfect time and place for listening to your music?
　Yeah definitely the best place to listen is around afternoon...at the beach, with a nice cold pop and fries, or fried dough! Or hanging with friends driving to the mountains on a mellow summer afternoon!

What inspires you most when writing a song?
　Oh various things. I listen to a lot of traditional Japanese culture music, some old beat tunes; my friends, meditation, the chirps the birds make in my backyard, that wind that flows gently around dawn at the beach, seeing cherry blossoms gently floating on a river , the waves that crash onto the surface, my friends smiling, shrines, the emotion "happiness," the word "life." Seeing things like these, ideas just burst.

What is your most memorable musical experience?
　When I first listened to two robots playing music as a young kid. They used to be human like you and me.//▲\\. Robots are beautiful.

What are your favourite three songs at the moment?
　Oh boy uh top three...Okay, got it.

　9th Wonder - All For Your Soul (Instrumental)
　Princess Music - White Wave
　Geotic - Sleeping Forever; We're Gods On Miles of Clouds

Who do you most admire in the music world?
　... that... is a tough one. There is a big list. But to name a few: Nujabes / submerse / Owsey / Burial / J dilla / Baths/ Stumbleine / Helios / Fat Jon / Boards of Canada / Sloww Magic / Daft Punk / Geotic... and etc. hahaha

In your opinion, what is the future of music?
　I don't know what will be tomorrow but I believe we blossom into something spiritual. It's very hard to explain really. The future is where probably we find our inner selves. Where we continue to dig deeper in our selves. Finding the origin of our spirit to the point where we bloom into something beautiful that cannot be explained. For me, I call it "awake." Some are already asleep as we speak still crating what's down there in their spirit and heart and some are already blossomed. That's what the future of music is for me... I know it's weird sorry haha...

What's the future of your music - what do you hope to do next?
　My music is evolving greatly. If I had a chart of the music I made before and the music I make now is like an "evolution chart"... I think. I have a ton of tracks that are much different of the ones that are placed in SoundCloud. I am giving tracks that were done about 1 or 2 years ago. I rarely give original tracks that I make this year, because I believe they are too early. The tracks that are given out are about just a small portion. What I intend to do is just like before, to touch the spirits within others and continue on. I want to travel with my music all around. Putting a mark of my music on every location that I have always dreamt of going. Right now I am saving, for numerous of things. One of them is for traveling.

What, aside from music, is most important to you?
　The relationships I have with friends, here and from across the big pond, my parents, the beach, spirit, my ears, love, nature, moon, and..... probably the episodes of "Adventure Time".

You can tell from Starlit's answers that his approach to music is very personal - and, really, for the best music, the most listenable and most endearing, surely the best approach or the ONLY approach is personal. Taking slices of life and turning them into music, allowing you - the musician - to create a chronicle of the best times of life, an endless dream of good memories and feelings, must be an amazing way to create music.

And as a listener, you can feel that nature. Here are fuzzy, hazy days that shine in the mist of memory. As such, it's only right and sensible that this musician would want to travel around the world - not only to spread his music around, but to absorb the goodness of the world, suck up culture, experience new sights and sounds, and then gently bring them to life through the wonderful portals of music that he conjures up. More on Starlit Everglades to come!

← #9: METOME #11: YOSI HORIKAWA →

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Like Starlit Everglades on Facebook
Listen to Starlit Everglades on Soundcloud
Hear more Starlit Everglades on Myspace
Follow Starlit Everglades on Twitter
Check Starlit Everglades on Tumblr
Watch Starlit Everglades on YouTube

Thursday, 13 June 2013

STARLIT EVERGLADES MYLOTIC

Again we have the old "this ain't new" thing here, but it's new for me and it might be maybe new for you too. And it's very very pretty. It comes from a producer called Starlit Everglades and I don't know where they are from because they make it seem as though they might be from Japan but I think they're American or live in America. I just don't know, alright?

Who really cares because it's the internet and everyone's from everywhere anyway. Starlit Everglades likes, amongst other things, swimming, anime and Japan, has a pretty big following on SoundCloud, and makes quite a lot of music - prolific is the word. Yet I think it's that kinda thing where it's kinda hard to find - this kind of stuff exists, seemingly, only in certain pockets of similar interests and stuff. This is a certain brand of chillwave, I guess, drenched in chill with not many traces of any other genre influences in it. In that way you could say that it is quite pure, and that comes across in the sound itself. It is characterised by one major element, which is a sweeping, bubbling, almost living-and-breathing wave of clean, modulating synth.

You can see for yourself. Actually, hear. Here is 'Mylotic'. I am not sure what the title means. I googled it and found that there is a Pokémon called Milotic. But that's not the same.

With sparse beginnings of a thin kick and hi-hat working together, the glassy synth soon comes in - everything from this point develops into quite a grand kind of feel. Perhaps it's to do with the amount of build-up, or the lack of dance elements in the song, but it is one that is more for listening than dancing to and this I would say gives it that grand feeling. But before it gets there, muffled kicks are introduced pushing everything onwards, making ripples in the mesh of synth like whales breaking the surface of a sea. A snare gets dropped in every now and again.

After a break, everything comes back in like a wave crashing on a beach, a dream spilling into real life all at once - snare now rattling underneath a new high-pitched synth that zooms above everything. And as slowly as everything came in at the beginning, so it goes, fading out. It's very pretty music indeed with breathtaking vibes.