The Aural Canyon label is no stranger to this little blog of ours, mainly because we have much love for their delicious brand of audio bliss. Our orbits are very aligned with theirs, and we eagerly anticipate each new release from the imprint. This particular cassette has been rattling our ear drums for awhile, and it is a shame that we haven’t had the bandwidth to spill any ink about it in months past, because it’s so damn good!
Modular synth wizard Grainger Weston is behind the moniker With Great Care, and this is his debut. It’s a pretty epic release, though – so well-tuned as a matter of fact that it’s hard to believe this guy hasn’t been cranking out synth-scapes for eternity. Or maybe he has, and this is the first time that he’s dared to attach his incorporeal emanations to a physical form. One can never be sure…
This is the kind of modular jamming we love around here: the music carefully balances a mix of ambient hues behind a melodic foreground and fractured loops that coalesce into tide pools of undifferentiated sound. Such weirdness can create a kaleidoscopic effect, as can be heard on “Swim”, in which oblique patterns emerge and recede almost constantly as the lengthy piece unfolds. At other times there is an unnerving, extraterrestrial vibe that takes hold. The alien atmospheres of “Horizon” with its glitchy lexicon is exemplary of such an unearthly mode.
Unique in its execution is “Blue”, in which a sprightly – almost pachinko-esque – melody is sparsely peppered over a barely present hum. It’s like Weston is jamming freely on his modular, really exploring the outer reaches of melody, tone and timbre. The whole thing is thrilling. As a matter of fact, the entire tape is a stunner from beginning to end – definitely one that we will be jamming while under quarantine, and beyond.
Aural Canyon have copies of this expansive and entrancing cassette over at their Bandcamp, so grab yourself a copy, hunker down, and drift away on clouds of synth.
