There are some musicians that come at you like a sonic ninja, smacking you hard in the face and then plunging your bloody head into a bucket of ice cold water until you scream for air. Yesterday’s Mi Ami being a good case in point. Today, we take the opposite, somewhat more restrained approach, with music that lightly tickles your brain with a duck feather and whispers nocturnal lullabies in your ear.
Seattle’s The Sight Below mines a tradition of ambience, drone, shoegaze and fuzztronica so skillfully developed by the likes of Eno, Kevin Shields and 4AD, and more latterly manicured by Wolfgang Voigt (with GAS), Ulrich Schnauss, Mexico’s Murcof and, adding a belated kick to proceedings, Chile’s Ricardo Tobar.
The key here is in the preparation – The Sight Below (who is apparently reluctant to divulge his real name) begins with a clutch of guitars and old-school effects units and delays. Playing with bows or light picks, the output is looped, captured, layered upon layer, and receives a minimal nip and a tuck before the track is closed off. Certainly, there is a sense of minimal post-production editing or re-arrangement – the work is imbued with the kind of tactile, still consideration that is only possible when the instrument is literally in your hands.
This first track below ‘With Her Kiss (I’d Pass The Sky)’ is culled from a free 3-track EP on Ghostly titled ‘No Place For Us’ – a precursor to his full-length album, Glider, released last November and featuring the second mp3, ‘Life’s Fading Light’.
The Sight Below – With Her Kiss (I’d Pass The Sky) | mp3
The Sight Below – Life’s Fading Light | mp3
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