Natalie Rose LeBrecht - Mandarava Rose (Galtta Media, 2019)

Oh man, the Galtta crew is on a roll this year.  First came the Ron Tomas & John Swana cassette and now we are treated to this delightful reel of magnetic bliss.  Natalie Rose LeBrecht is a songwriter who has spent much of the last decade away from releasing music, instead focusing on the exploration of meditation and hypnosis.  She turned her focus inward.  We are blessed to be able to experience her music again.

Mandarava Rose is an introspective exercise, one that is lush and flourishing with an intrinsic life force.  LeBrecht unfurls piano and organ, and croons with a voice that is equally diaphanous and dynamic.  For this collection of compositions, she brought Galtta label head David Lackner on board to add flute and sax adornments.  These embellishments serve the compositions well, without overtaking LeBrecht’s incredibly hypnotic piano lines and incredibly fascinating vocal incantations.

LeBrecht draws inspiration from Alice Coltrane, even going so far as to dedicate lead off track “Rishi Stars” to the legendary composer under her Sanskrit name, Turiyasangitananda.  The piece is a whirlwind of piano, synth and voice – one that swirls, swoops and swerves like plumes of smoke around a room.  “Rosebud & Lotus” is a more melody-forward piece, with subtle accompaniment from Lackner’s saxophone and an incredibly powerful vocal performance.  The relatively short “Lost” is almost sprightly, with a delightful piano passage and intertwining sax/voice melodies.

Realistically, it’s better to hear Mandarava Rose rather than listen to me faun all over these incredibly moving compositions.  Thankfully there are still copies left at the Galtta Bandcamp, so let your fingers do the walking and allow yourself to float away on these delicious clouds of harmony.

Ron Thomas & John Swana - Serenity (Galtta Media, 2019)

The folks over at Galtta fly in some interesting airspace.  They play with bizarre-yet-smooth pop, and then they’ll throw a curveball at you with a record like Serenity.  This beast is a kosmische maelstrom courtesy of two jazz types who moonlight as electronic conjurers.  Swana is a trumpeter who also wields the EVI (electronic valve instrument) and Thomas is a pianist and composer whose ivory-tickling strays into the electronic keyboard and synth realm.  Together they romp around the house built by Tangerine Dream and it’s to great effect.

A blizzard of sound washes over a thick, rubbery bass line as “Message” comes into focus.  A series of synthetic murmurs morphs into a siren call that really draws you in and wraps you in the duo’s web of intimate sonics.  And yes, these sonics are intimate: like a warm embrace by firelight while you’re looking out the window to watch the snowflakes fly.  This comforting resonance continues through to “Rainforest”, with its amalgamation of birdsong and synthetic clouds of bliss.  The tones wash over you as you explore ever deeper into the piece, uncovering unclassified species of sound.

With “Foundation”, the duo take the proceedings in an extraterrestrial direction.  This is the longest piece on the cassette, which gives Thomas and Swana plenty of space to explore other realms of sound.  Stars collide and nebulae transform before our eyes as the ambient drift goes ever onward.  The title track brings these dreamlike events to a close.  The elastic bass from earlier reappears, anchoring the experience to our home planet, even as the uncanny resonance leads us toward the heavens.  Eventually, one by one, each tone evaporates, leaving us wiping our brow in exalted exhaustion.

You too can find serenity by heading over to the Galtta Bandcamp.  Buckle up and prepare for liftoff!!

Adrian Knight - Vacation Man (Galtta Media, 2018)

This gentleman is a Swedish ex-pat who lives in New York and is a mainstay of the Galtta Media empire, which is helmed by one David Lackner.  Adrian Knight may call NYC home, but he truly resides in a universe where corporate training videos, Club Med advertising, and a sort of post-nostalgic, morose funk all collide into a broken-down version of the American Dream.  On the surface, everyone is all smiles, with perfectly coiffed hair, the right clothes, a great car, and a bronze body.  Dig deeper and wage slavery is the rule, and we are all pining for some time away, all-inclusive, where we can plow down cocktails and gorge ourselves at the buffet trough.  Enter Vacation Man.

The artwork accompanying this cassette is a painting of either a waiting room at a travel agency or the antechamber of a timeshare sales enclave.  Fluorescent lights are dispersed in a T-bar drop ceiling, and the flat screen TV is probably displaying thinly-veiled advertising on a loop.  The magazines on the coffee table most likely offer maximum relaxation and all-you-can-eat.  Perfection, at a price.

Sonically, Adrian Knight and friends (Lackner on woodwinds, Michael Advensky mans drums and percussion, Alice Cohen provides backing vocals, and Nick Stevens plays the trombone) echo the illusion of unlimited pleasure masking a woozy collective sadness.  The music is almost polished, but cracks in the façade pop out frequently: an off-beat rhythmic element here, an out of tune synth there, a hint of melancholy in the lyrics.

But as much as Knight acknowledges the gloom, he’s sanguine and asks us for a similar perseverance.  Be positive!  Revel in the illusion!  And his music leads us to succumb.  We close our eyes, a wan smile on our faces, as we dream of our next escape.  Thank you, Mr. Knight.  Vacation Man – with its smooth rhythms and luscious woodwinds – might just get me through the rest of this brutal winter.

Released in an edition of 125, Vacation Man is still available from the Galtta Media Bandcamp, so head on over and drift into an alternate plane of existence.  Don’t worry, be happy!

Energy ☆ - Energy ☆ (Galtta Media, 2018)

This is the third cassette from the bedroom house/techno duo Energy ☆, and it’s their second eponymous edition.  Comprising ethereal dream weaver Camilla Padgitt-Coles (Ivy Meadows, Future Shuttle) and experimental producer/composer Bryce Hackford, the on-going collaborative project drifts in the liminal spaces that exist outside of genre, place and time.  The music lives in between, the electronic constructions hovering not quite within the bounds of either composition or improvisation.  The beauty of the music subsists in and for itself, with each of the five pieces residing in its own singular microcosm.  Yet a conceptual thread ties the entire cassette together.

Calling this music ‘house’ and/or ‘techno’ is actually slightly misleading, as really only the opening track “~” really exists within such narrow realms with its juicy bass line and hi-hat shuffle.  An arcane ooze infects the oblique rhythm of “~~”, but a pair of sprightly, disjointed melodies dance across its slippery foundation.  The relatively brief “~~~” is an improvisational percussive romp that carries its own uncanny sense of time.

Wrapping all these conceptual notions together is the gorgeous “~~~~”, which sways effortlessly across its 16-minute run time.  Its blissful blanket of drone will surely bring lidded eyes and a lackadaisical smile to those who partake.  Wrapping up the proceedings is “~~~~~” with a brittle rhythm that is the most alien of the bunch.  Delicate chimes and a series of organ drones serve to lighten the mood as the piece drifts toward a peaceful conclusion.

Arriving in an edition of 100 pro-dubbed cassettes, this enigmatic song cycle is certainly worth exploring, so head to the Galtta Media Bandcamp to snap up a copy for yourself.