POSTCARDS — HOME IS SO SAD

⌾ LISTEN TO HOME IS SO SAD BY POSTCARDS ⌾

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The mesh of distortion and fuzz that lies over this track by Beirut-based band Postcards creates a fitting aesthetic for its title: 'Home is so Sad'. It's the refrain that runs through the track, voiced by lead singer Julia Sabra like a mantra with descending notes — sadness far removed by time, but present and watchful. A simple melody plays with timeworn wheeze; keeping time are an insistent barrage of decayed drums, regular and metronomic but sometimes (and fittingly) accented to create arrhythmic chaos.

The sound is rooted in real life. The song was one of three the band wrote following the devastating 2020 Beirut explosion, and features poignant lyrics that juxtapose the everyday experiences of the city, of the eponynous "home", with the very un-everyday catastrophic event itself:

"Glass in our coffee / Towels on trees [...]
Soil splattered on the walls like drops of blood."

Completing a considered, slow-motion and dreamlike balance of soft and harsh — sunk in sadness but with the swell and crash of trauama — a guitar wheels like a portent of doom into the scene. Notes screech and clash, buzzing and grinding to and fro with shoegaze grit, while somewhere in the background a light, electronic cloud of sound floats by, like a thought bubble — an ever-present vehicle for visceral memories.

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• 🔔 This haunting track is taken from Postcards upcoming third album, Before the End, which is scheduled for release later in 2021 on Berlin label t3 records. You can also stream and/or purchase 'Home is so Sad' if you like.

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☟ Postcards Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 INSTUPENDO — PLAY PALETTE

The nebulous wandering sounds at the heart of this track hint at more than just a chilled atmosphere. There is a warmth to this, a ghostly warmth, a warmth of things past and remembered and cherished, something like a loved one coming back to watch over you in their afterlife—almost mournful, almost joyful, this track is clouds pierced by sunlight, sadness sprinkled with glad feelings, it is bittersweetness. It has the touching title of 'play palette' and it was created by instupendo.

Heady nostalgia swirls heavily around the glass sides of this track like a wine saved and savoured. The wonky decaying synth chimes like an ancient musicbox opened and watched and listened to and almost tasted, memories effusing from it, and then the beauty of that piano, dusty and half-dilapidated, the touching ornamentations and flourishes of recollection, the exquisite details of broad emotions. 'play palette' takes us by the hand, driven along by the smart stoic beat, unceasing clean with snapping clarity, the structure of it providing that grounding of reality as the mists of time whirl round our fingers and we try to hold on; the angular frame of the window as we gaze out of it.

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• 🔔 This comes from instupendo's recent Friend of a Friend EP. You can listen to this on SoundCloud but you can also stream and download it from various other places.
• 🔔 The artwork for the EP, with brushstrokes and details as indistinct yet bold as the shifting shadows of memorial echoes in the track itself, was created by Kacper Abolik. This artist has, amongst other things, received attention due to his vibrant soulful paintings being featured on A$AP Rocky's instagram.

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📠
☟ instupendo Internet Presence ☟
facebook ⚘ soundcloud ⚘ official site ⚘ twitter ⚘ instagram ⚘ spotify ⚘ songkick

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FLOPPIE – TOMATO'S PAST

Breaking beats! Break beats! Bbeats! It's a lovely spot of this sort of breakcore-y thing from an Aichi-based musicmaker and purveyor of soul-lifting break beats floppie. Recently well I say recently but this is like four months ago back in August, back when the days are long and the nights are short and intrepid and wrapped in insomniac warmth, floppie released an EP on lolicore-affiliated label The Worst Label. The title? A Tomato Supreme. I found this a couple of months ago and I was hooked by the name of the EP and the nature of the songs - it all seemed to be about tomatoes. I have or had or harbour the ghost of an obsession with tomatoes. I like them in ketchup. I like them in pasta. I like them in curry. I like them in many forms except raw. I cannot begin to describe my aversion to raw tomatoes. My skype name even features the word "tomato" so that just about seals it - this is an EP for me. But what was it all about?

"whats with tomato?" somebody asked in the comments. floppie answered: "I was inspired by the word tomato. There is no deep meaning ^u^)/"

"I do not like Tomatoes :P" said one commenter; floppie replied "Me too... >_<"

Me too, I typed just now, glancing quickly at the cat curled cutely under the table. So without further ado let's just listen to probably the most heavenly cut from this tasty lil EP, 'Tomato's Past'.

Somewhere along the line, it seems that "Tomato" is the name of every whimsical love or crush you've ever and never had, embodied in the various SoundCloud track artwork for the EP in the form of a red-haired girl, effusing lolicore aesthetics.

But but but, where were we? 'Tomato's Past' – a whooshing leftover from previous more futuristic track 'おやすみTomato-Chan' leads us into delicate droplets of piano like lingering on sweet memories, glistening key touches that morph and merge into warmer more urgent piano chords forming the emotive backdrop on which floppie spins hyperactive undeniably virtuosic clusters of breakbeats at breakneck speed, the percussive drillings accompanied by an occasional yammering vocal sample just about audible and a dynamic whoosh of noise that separates the song's parts.

Things become more intense in its second half, split from the first with a cute glockenspiel melody and then jumping into the impressive cavalcade of percussion in the next section, strings subtly rising up, sumptuous cymbals crashing into the empty space behind the piano-and-beats combination. How sweet is this song, how jittery and excited like the thumping heart and gentle nausea of love and first romances and even the urgency to live and experience life in light of painful nostalgia telling you that the distance between the more idealised portions of your past and your present day ever-hurtling-to-tomorrow is slowly becoming more and more sizeable. It's that winsome love of life and gentle kindness and excited passion that floppie celebrates with this addictive track and it's totally believable.

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• Definitely check out floppie's A Tomato Supreme EP on The Worst Label's Bandcamp.

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☟ floppie Social Media Presence ☟
SoundCloud • Bandcamp • Twitter

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SUI ZHEN – MEGA DRIVE

Oooo-eeeeee, wow, so, this is supremely pretty. More than that it's scene-conjuring, evocative, heartbreaking, heartwarming, tear-inducing, smile-making – it's 'Mega Drive' by Becky Sui Zhen aka Sui Zhen (aka DJ Susan), a musicmaker and all-round atmosphere creator from Melbourne, Australia.

'Mega Drive' seems to call out from an unplaceable, nonexistent retro-futuristic crevasse deep in the music world – there is something otherworldly about it, a gracious gentle delicacy achieved by the mix of plaintive, unthreatening keyboard-demo beat and the endearing vocals, like insubstantial wisps of clouds making their way across a splashed-orange sunset sky, or like friendly ghosts trying to make contact. The very title is a conjuring of nostalgia: the Sega Mega Drive: symbol of lost youth for a generation torn between the analogue and the digital age.

Synth strings follow the vocal melody somewhat with effortless simplicity, still that beat gently blooping with its semi-tropical snips of sharp percussion, decayed bass rolling itself around the bottom end of the track with a reserved attitude, wobbling slightly like the blurred edges of memories that make you laugh and cry, the whole thing pockmarked with indistinct shouts of "hey!" rising up as if somebody's trying to wake you up from a dream.

The aesthetic Sui Zhen has employed here is one that seeps into your spirit, cradles your sense of self with a forlorn feeling, effuses the reverie of the past from a chasm of abstract memories. It's like… the sense of unutterable longing for childhood and all its beautiful accoutrements, its comfort and its wonder and the sense of time being elongated into a fantasy future as yet undisturbed and waiting to be discovered, happy days of innocence and simplicity. That's how I understand it anyway.

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• 'Mega Drive' is taken from Sui Zhen's very very recent EP, Body Reset, a beautiful collection of introspective songs much in the same vein as this one, exploring "the resetting of both body and mind" and "influenced as much by late nights in Koenji, Tokyo as at an onsen/sauna in the mountains of Nagano," and released by boutique Tokyo-based label eskers.
• Purchase Body Reset on tape cassette here. (Also, don't you just love the art? The green and pink colours go together just perfectly~).
• Sui Zhen was part of the Red Bull Music Academy in 2010, alongside Daisuke Tanabe, and has previously worked with Andras Fox as Sui + Fox.

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☟ Social Media Presence ☟
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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)

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LAZY INTERVIEW #10: STARLIT EVERGLADES

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← #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.

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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".

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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!

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← #9: METOME #11: YOSI HORIKAWA →

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