#citay

Ezra Feinberg & John Kolodij by Ezra Feinberg & John Kolodij

This split EP from artists Ezra Feinberg and John Kolodij offers placid pools of wavering sound, a gorgeous liquid calm that spreads from edge to sonic edge. This is not music to wake you up or get you ready for the hurly burly, but it’s perfect for retreat, contemplation and psychic healing.

Gulin China Satya Confucius Patreon.com/GodElohimArchangel

Three veterans of modern American psychedelia presenting diverse visions of new age, drone, and minimalism: First up is Ezra Feinberg (of Citay) with some supremely California influenced vibrations on his own Related States imprint. Tim Green’s production is magnificent as always and the vibe is so sunny and hopeful. Next, Gregg Kowalsky of the legendary Date Palms returns after a long absence, dropping a sun-seeking set of hazy ambiance on Mexican Summer. The final review is of the Never Enough Time cassette by Michael C. Sharp (Sungod), a glorious set of guitar dominated Berlin school spacemusic on Holodeck Records. Mike is a longtime friend, so reviewing his music here is a true honor.

Ezra Feinberg - Pentimento and Others (Related States, 2018) The album begins with an acoustic guitar in slow arpeggiation, each note sent through electronic effects with slow attack and long decay. As “God Sized Hole” progresses, chords emerge and the slow bloom effects on the guitar generate huge waves of sound and a hypnotic pulsing rhythm. Chimes and distant bass drum give further shape to the wide-eyed groove, creating a relaxing bed of sound over which new age pianos drift peacefully. “True Refuge” is an emotional cascade of fingerpicked acoustic in minimalist patterns. Resonant leads ring out under controlled feedback and bright electric guitars in syncopated rhythms strike a balance between 60’s psychedelia and climactic post-rock. The short guitar instrumental “Sweater Weather” evokes a pastoral morning nostalgia and then the album shifts to the west coast minimalism and afro-psych sunshine of “Kernel and Shell”. Bright guitar melodies in harmony with airy flutes join tasteful folk percussion and colorful thumb piano on a joyful search for enlightenment.

“Pentimento” starts the B-side with multi-tracked acoustic guitars locked into classical minimalist polyrhythms, with guitar chords again being fed through electronic effects, letting the notes ring out through vibrato and bright reverb. Serene distorted guitar creates tremolo waves until everything fades away, leaving solo electric to bathe the surroundings in the soft glow of memory. Shining American primitivism dominates the “The Sensory Floor” as the intimate recording of the fingerpicked acoustic allows the strings to drone headily against the fretboard alongside subtle arcs of feedback and soft rhythmic echo leads. Sunny psych chords jangle in glorious wonderment as simple synthesizers provide texture and mountainous organ tones ascend and descend in new age perfection. The album ends on a bit of laid back stoney jamming, Californian as hell, and in no hurry to get anywhere. The languid acoustic guitar, drums, and bass and clean electric soloing of “Experience Near” lock into a psychedelic country rock shuffle as West coast legend and Grateful Dead alum Pete Grant drops heavenly globs of liquid steel guitar from the clear blue sky.

Gregg Kowalski - L’Orange, L’Orange (Mexican Summer, 2018) “L’Orange, L’Ambiance” is classically kosmische, with deep vocal synth drones and mystical effected organ in triumphant ascension, evoking early Klaus Schulze bootlegs. This cuts abruptly into “Maliblue Dream Sequence” and a hazy wall of sound that moves and rotates through the stereo field. Synth pads are smeared by delay into amorphous drone clouds fluttering and cascading, as deep bass tones wander pleasantly and provide a meditative anchor amidst the ever evolving nebula of blurred sonics. The best cut here is “Tuned to Monochrome”, aligning closely with Bitchin Bajas. Deep and constant background drones and placid organ chords support a simple and spellbinding synth arp that morphs sharply between several cerebral patterns. Flashes of light and dark color come in the form of droning filter sweeps, early morning pads, and a subtle sprinkling of noa bells. The soft phasing static pulses of “Tonal Bath for Bubbles” close the side, with otherworldly synth arps panning across the mix in vibrant rainbow trajectories.

Side B appears to favor darker moods and textures, starting with the atonal synth drones and deep percussive bass sounds of “Pattern Haze”. It is interesting that this song uses noisey and amelodic vibrations, yet everything still coalesces into dreamy meditative bliss. Over the life of the track, moments of disharmony emerge via overlapping delay oscillations, and at the end  everything drops away leaving just the rhythmic bass echoing alongside cerebral and alien electronics. “Ritual Del Croix” follows and is darker still, with hollow bass droning underneath psychotropic synth oscillations. Ominous drum pulses join murky noises arcing parabolically, and minimally placed snare hits give the impression of a ghostly underwater jazz. L’Orange, L’Orange concludes with “Blind Contour Drawing for Piano”. Up front hiss and room noise surround foggy and subtly effected piano, evoking early Mogwai (think Young Team and some of the shorter ambient/noise tracks).

Michael C. Sharp - Never Enough Time (Holodeck Records, 2017) “Well Being” starts the journey with mesmeric guitar delay in 70’s Berlin school patterns accented by warm descending echo leads. Dark drones sounding like distorted cellos wash in and out like waves, as bright guitar licks spiral off into sunny psychedelic Americana. Halfway through, the syncopated echo rhythms drop away, leaving tremolo picked drone clouds and washes of synthetic string ambiance. "Never Enough Time” weaves together glassy curlicues of bright synthesizer, harpsichord sounding arps, and subtle percussive effects, creating spellbinding repetitions that evoke imaginary worlds of childlike wonder and fantasy. The transition between the two sides is the albums only true dip into darkness, as “Pique Pouring Over” overwhelms with dark industrial drones and swarms of malfunctioning machine noise. The first part of “Tape Delay Dichotomy” cuts in sharply, disturbing the murky drones of “Pique” with phased white noise and textured webs of echo guitar rhythmics. A warm fog of bright pads pushes the vibe towards delirium and any sense of spacetime loses meaning as everything unifies with the phasing delay textures. The calming new age pulsations of the second part of “Tape Delay Dichotomy” trail off through echoes and strange filter algorithms, as deep bass synthesizers float aside sunbaked desert guitars in soft psychedelic walls of sound.