Writing about music in lieu of human interaction
Water armor, a side project of FLOOR BABA, sets aside the former's hyper-expressive video game sounds for something a bit more meditative. Where FLOOR BABA's chiptune synths and frenetic beats bring to mind images of sleepover-happy middle schoolers crushing energy drinks, button-mashing XBOX, and hurting themselves on a friend's trampoline, water armor's most recent release, … Continue reading Daily Yinz – water armor – My Reflection
On their second album, fittingly titled Cartoon Forest II (Crash Symbols), ambient trio Cartoon Forest meld computer sounds with nature sounds to hypnotic effect. Recorded in a cabin way up north in Harborcreek, CFII contains eight tracks full of drifting, faded tones augmented by squelches, clicks, gurgles, and the occasional birdcall. The atmosphere is muffled, … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Cartoon Forest – The Unknown
As Requiem Witch, Carolyn Slothour infuses spooky electronic soundscapes with unearthly strands of flute. Requiem Witch's debut EP, Meta Madness, came out in late June. The title track is a creeping, downtempo affair that opens with bubbles of synth, mournful strings, and whispering percussion before Slothour's flute takes center stage, weaving its way hauntingly through … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Requiem Witch – Meta Madness
Stephen Matejka's County Conservation District project morphed into its most accessible iteration yet with June's Some Fear. Inspired by a range of producers and composers, the tape evokes images of blue screens flickering late at night, images of old video games and B-movies flashing by at random. "Phillip Jeffries," named for a Twin Peaks character … Continue reading Daily Yinz – County Conservation District – Phillip Jeffries
Malo Mortuum creates atmospheric black metal music, which combines ragged brutality with brooding synth textures. Picture this: You're wending your way through a dark forest somewhere in eastern Europe, or possibly Scandinavia. All of the pigment has been blanched away from the world around you, leaving everything a severe shade of gray. You come upon … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Malo Mortuum – Dark Mysticism
Brandon O'Neill's Memory Wound project produces blurry soundscapes created from tape loops, field recordings, found sounds, and more. Memory Wound's April release, Lillian Drip, is by turns peaceful and haunting, beautiful and elusive. Where many of the album's tracks drift by in a dissociative haze, eddying outward like faint ripples on a pond, O'Neill takes … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Memory Wound – Lead Moon
Grîmmöld, a solo artist who uses medieval synth tones and blasts of screeching black metal to portray tales of creatures, magic, and adventure, recently released their Noldorin Halls EP. Noldorin Halls, whose title references an Elvish race dreamed up by J.R.R. Tolkien, mostly features winding instrumental passages that evoke mountain peaks and perilous encounters, the … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Grîmmöld – Sirannon
County Conservation District (the musical alias of Pittsburgh artist Stephen Matejka, who is also the force behind the Autumn Sounds tape label) provides some placidity on this Monday morning. CCD recently released "Transmission From Tokyo" as part of a split with Iowa's Bob Bucko Jr. The ambient track sounds like the morning sun swell of … Continue reading Daily Yinz – County Conservation District – Transmission From Tokyo
Pittsburgh artist Dustin Stuppy creates peaceful, meditative electronic compositions under the name Vacancy. Vacancy's latest release, The End Is Also The Beginning, contains 12 gorgeous, instrumental tracks that merge ambient, empty-train-station-at-night placidity with classical music's sweeping sense of movement. "Jasmine," which features Patrick Hodge on drums, plays out as a suite in three parts. The … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Vacancy – Jasmine
Lucite Spine makes recordings of sounds. These sounds can be naturalistic, mellow, grating, or all three. "Err organelle," one of two tracks that make up Lucite Spine's latest release, neven, buries a faint melodic progression under layers of raspy static.. If you listen past the dirt-smeared chaos of the surface level, a nice little instrumental … Continue reading Daily Yinz – Lucite Spine – Err organelle
Bored In Pittsburgh 