Earthly - Days

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  • The American electronic music underground is an interesting place right now. In addition to usual hotspots like Chicago, LA, New York and Detroit, more scenes across the US are gaining visibility, as artists once associated with noise and indie rock move over to electronic sounds. One cluster of activity has centered around the South, and young Alabama label Noumenal Loom is among its brightest prospects. It has been steadily moving away from its roots in drone towards something more playful and light (like this year's Peach Winks EP by co-owner Holly Waxwing), and Earthly's Days seems to signal the start of a new era. This album from the North Carolina duo is Noumenal Loom's first vinyl release, and its most striking chapter yet. With Days, Edaan Brook and Brint Hansen present an incredibly dense tangle of samples. They prefer non-musical sounds over snippets from other records, which makes their songs feel makeshift and unstable, with little noises popping out almost at random. There's a youthful exuberance about the way Earthly put together their found sounds, from the record's pastel tones to the simple delight they take in cobbling kooky melodies or stretching voices like silly putty. It doesn't necessarily make their music easy to understand, and the album's opening run is an especially disorienting experience. Disembodied finger snaps, grunts and barbershop quartet harmonies rattle around "RGB," while the creaky, percussive drive of "Ice Cream" sounds like Mr. Oizo performed on children's toys. There's a staggering amount of detail going on in those two alone, and the rest of Days is packed solid with all kinds of samples—so much so that it can be hard to digest in one sitting. The phrase "batshit insane" came to mind more than once while listening to the LP. As it cycles through earthy ambient techno ("Honison Climber"), gorgeous looping à la The Field ("Games") and things that sound totally incomprehensible and creepy ("Babby Bobby"), it can leave you confused. Thankfully, some tender moments, like the broken-toy lullaby "Secret Squirrel" and "Shell Spell," provide mid-album breathers. Days is pure sensory overload, and like a kaleidoscope, the experience changes with every listen. The naiveté of Days—which extends right down to its scattershot sequencing—will definitely turn some people off, but the album is remarkably approachable given how strange it is. Like label mate Holly Waxwing, or PC Music's Felicita, Brook and Hansen take cutesy, childlike sounds and arrange them in truly bizarre ways. Days can be appreciated at both a molecular and surface level. It's a landmark release for Noumenal Loom, and a hint of what's going on in the unsung US regions. There's a world of electronic music beyond house, techno and bass stuffed into its corners, and listening to Days is like finding a portal right to the middle of it.
  • Tracklist
      01. RGB 02. Ice Cream 03. Glaze 04. Honison Climber 05. Games 06. Babby Bobby 07. Backflip 08. Secret Squirrel 09 Pure In Between 10. Daemon 11. Shell Spell 12. Wink
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