#lits801

[thesunlounge]

Reviews 025: Aporia

Cheers to Dub Disco for dropping one of the coolest packages all year and for turning me on to the sunshine brilliance of Aporia. Dub Disco presents Aporia houses five tracks of near-perfect flower power balearic pop, four of which are from Aporia’s 2016 release Almost Tropical (check it here). And though the dreamy futon themed interludes from that album are omitted, we instead get four insane remixes by the likes of LITS801, Aussteiger, Cosmic Palms, and S&W that bring the tracks closer to the dance floor while retaining the shimmering tropical atmospherics.

Aporia - Dub Disco presents Aporia (Dub Disco, 2018) The high point for me among the originals on side B is “Stereo Moon”, with its swinging beat, shuffling acoustic riff, and melancholic “Wicked Game” leaning guitar lead. There are moments where the song floats away from shore, blue skies above and no worries, and the vocals hit you in the heart, alternating between beautiful lyricism and wordless melodies. The woozy synths, airy beat, and forlorn vocals of opener “Celestial Castles” hover somewhere between transcendent indie and flowery psychedelia, recalling nothing so much as The Olivia Tremor Control or even Circulatory System. Incredible. “Jupiter’s Goldcoast” is intriguing, as the equatorial chord progression underlying everything sounds directly lifted from A.R.T. Wilsons “Rebecca’s Theme (Water)”. The mix is embellished with more energy in the beat and additional aquatic keyboard fx, and Aporia’s narcotic sunshine vocals move everything towards blissed out island pop perfection. “Honolulu Sunset” occupies similarly balearic territory, starting epic and sad as soaring vocals overwhelm the mix, before backing down into a peaceful folkiness with phased string synths in that 70’s prog style. And as a cinematic breakbeat drops, the vibe is totally starry-eyed and reaching ever skyward. The final Aporia original, “First Nail in the Coffin” features Amelia Murray (Fazerdaze) and was not on Almost Tropical. A skeletal drum machine beat backs Aporia’s and Amelia’s vocals in heavenly harmony over huge hopeful piano chords, and everything builds towards shining layers of ambient post-punk riffing over propulsive rhythmics.

The A-side features two remixes each of “Jupiter’s Goldcoast” and “Stereo Moon”. Starting with “Jupiter’s Goldcoast”, LITS801 presents their epic length “Lights on the Island Remix”. Seabirds and the sounds of waves, all under psychedelic echoes, accompany a downbeat disco pulse accented by breezy hand percussion. An up front and housey bassline joins the A.r.t. Wilson pads and the vibe is slow, epic, and club ready...very Coyote. Liquid guitar drops from the sky, processed backwards and forwards, spacey and oceanic, and Aporia’s vocals are reduced to hypnotic sibilance sent through multi-hued delays and reverbs. S&W’s “Drummachine Dub” of this same track is a cruising slice of balearic electro, featuring bouncing bass synths and gigantic swaggering drum machines. The A.r.t. Wison pads are embellished by submarine pings and effected guitar, though the mix stays minimal and dubby, allowing everything tons of space and depth. For “Stereo Moon”, Aussteiger’s “Underwater Love RMX” foregrounds the romantic Chris Isaak guitar lead alongside an uptempo beat, everything gliding on good vibes as vibrato organs mix with Aporia’s incredible vocals. The energy elevates with climactic tom-tom builds as panning synth solos color over the emotional guitar patterns. And the Cosmic Palms “Moon Mix” glides like slow motion Wally with the bubbly beat, tropical multi-layered sequences, and breezy pads.The vocals are morphed into unrecognizable forms and the intoxicating guitar riff is chopped and edited into something completely new. It’s a motorik slow-kraut groove out, but in that mid 2000’s kind of way.

(all images taken from my personal copies)

[thesunlounge]

Reviews 322: Aporia

I discovered the music of Aporia and Mitchell James O’Sullivan by way of Dub Disco, a beloved label who released Dub Disco Presents Aporia + Remixes back in 2018. One side of the 12” highlighted tracks from Aporia’s debut release Almost Tropical alongside an exclusive new track featuring Fazerdaze, while the other saw Dub Disco head Aussteiger and associated artists such as LITS801, Cosmic Palms, and S&W applying their balearic remix skills to to O’Sullivan’s tropically-tinged psych pop fantasies. The whole thing was a revelation and in the time since, both Almost Tropical and Dub Disco Presents Aporia + Remixes have worked themselves deep into my heart and now comprise some of my favorite music ever. So as you can imagine, there was considerable anticipation for an Aporia follow-up, which finally came during fall of 2019 in the form of Hotel Aporia, released by Cosmic Compositions and Fantasy Fiction Records. The LP sees O’Sullivan expanding the band’s line-up to include Nick Petricevic and Alia Seror-O'Neill, while also featuring a host of guest musicians providing additional guitar, synth, and woodwind treatments. And conceptually speaking, Hotel Aporia seeks to transport the listener to the titular hotel…an imagined beachfront resort existing in a sort of Lynch-ian dreamspace, one used by the band as a means to “navigate their South Pacific identities” and that is seemingly only accessible via exotic amalgams of library psychedelia, 50’s pop, Hollywood noir, sci-fi surf rock, and Hawaiian tropicalia.

Aporia - Hotel Aporia (Fantasy Fiction & Cosmic Compositions, 2019) After an introduction of mysterious orchestrations, operatic hazes, and chirping birds and insects, “Psychic Driving” sees a psychedelic surf beat riding alone before being joined by swinging bass thumps, tambourine jangles, piano chord splashes, horror film Moog leads, and spaceage theremin choirs. As the noir atmospherics recede, multi-tracked narcotica whispers flow above a sparse groove...as if O’Sullivan is scatting forbidden secrets while glowing synth hazes hover just out reach, with his voice sometimes backed by wordless feminine magic. During mesmeric choruses, cinematic strings and ghostly synth leads flow beneath Seror-O’Neil’s fantasy hooks and at some point, the whole thing gives over to a delirium jam out…like a trippy 60s happening taking place in the Red Room from Twin Peaks, with strobe lights flashing and enigmatic masked figures executing the batusi and the swim amidst melting layers of orchestral exotica. “South Seas Beijing” follows with seagulls and crashing waves surrounding liquid chord slides that recall nothing so much as “Breathe in the Air”. A lazed beat snaps amidst maraca rattles and chime strands as a Roger Waters style bassline drops, giving the whole thing the distinct feel of Pink Floyd scoring a South Pacific sunrise. And after an outro of moonlit wave motions, echoing loon modulations, and galactic synth flourishes from Lawree Goodwin, we flash into “Moon Taxi” and another solar surf rhythm glide. Seaside guitars glimmer in the sunlight and basslines sing beneath equatorial electronics as a vocal duet emerges, with O’Sullivan’s and Seror-O’Neil’s voices blurring together into heavy-lidded splendor. Cooing wordless refrains alternate with a fantasy chant of “the moon is watching” as flower power breakbeats are guided by bouncing bass guitar warmth, with lines occasionally sliding through lyrical romanticisms. There are moments where the mix reduces to an ambient blur, with aquamarine guitar vapors flowing through underwater vibrato fx, and towards the end, we flow into instrumental psych pop perfection as yearning voices suffuse the background…like sirens singing out from a hidden island paradise.

Amongst my favorite cuts here is “Helium,” which lets dense layers of fantasy synthesis guide a futuristic 50s pop epic. Slow motion drum beats glide beneath birdsong, with snares splattering through dub echoes. The classical ice cream chord progression rushes over the mix via lush pad orchestrations, angel choirs, and sparkling chimes while subsonic body grooves are generated by buzzing waves of analog warmth. Eventually, everything recedes save basslines, beats, and O’Sullivan’s and Seror-O'Neill’s vocal lullabies, which surround the heart with narcotizing threads of Roadhouse style synth-pop that strongly recall Angelo Badalamenti's and David Lynch's collaborations with Julee Cruise, as well as Chromatics. Gemstone piano mirages swim through the mix and during feverish choruses, the soul rushes towards a cinematic paradise aglow in tropical warmth. As the track progresses, multi-tracked string machines and droning polysynths subsume the singing…though hushed vocal incantations are still heard deep in the ether. Galactic lasers wiggle and cosmic tracers squiggle while fuzz guitars (or synths?) climb towards a molten summer sky, and during a moment of psychosonic mystery, the mix devolves into tremolo chordscapes and filtering trap kit rhythms, only to explode back into a stunning climax of “Heart and Soul” romance. A-side closer “Hawaiin Noir” continues exploring realms of 50s pop ethereality, though the vibe is pushed ever further towards South Pacific fantasy. Seed shakers keep a sparse rhythm while surf-stye guitars play doo wop progressions. A gorgeous voice calls out over the crashing waves with ecstatic abandon…like a goddess of the sunrise beckoning the spirit towards a paradise yet undiscovered…the effect so powerful as to literally take your breath away. Another guitar glides into the picture with soft motion solos, starshine electronics twinkle amidst a universal string synth hum, and nearing the end, everything fades into a mirage of meditative metal resonance, wherein Tibetan bowls sing over cricket chirps and crashing waves.

“Cloud Lodge” opens with insects and bongo rhythms surrounded by bubbling liquids. Bell trees flutter and stoner basslines pulse through ethereal shadows as O’Sullivan’s doped out lyricisms ride on sci-fi synths and spaghetti western guitars. New age melodies swim through the cosmos and further six-string accents melt into golden shimmer…all while dub chords delay towards the horizon. Next comes “Moog in Cairo” and its atmospheres of classical jazz meeting otherworldly exotica. There are touches of Omar Khorshid, Diminished Men, and Hosono’s, Suzuki’s, and Yamashita’s Pacific in the surfadelic guitar leads and as Fabien de Menou’s clarinets intertwine with mystical choral cloudforms, hand drums guide the body towards a hidden oasis. Twanging baritones decay towards a blood red sunset and child-like choirs sing songs of forbidden ecstasy amidst guiro scrapes and starshine chime descents....the whole thing like The Ventures tripping acid through a dramatic Hollywood rendering of an Arabian desert landscape. Rainforest percussions filter and pan over kick drums and ethereal gas clouds in “News from Nowhere” before we drop into the main groove, which sees basslines dancing and Peter Magnum’s sci-fi funk riffs crawling across the fretboard while drum machines sketch out robotic exotica patterns. Interstellar hazes blow across the spectrum, carrying with them outer-dimensional orchestrations that again evoke Arabian sunrises as well as the sensual dances of tango, and O’Sullivan’s double tracked vocalisms marry sonorous sensuality and falsetto radiance. Synthesizers gleam like diamonds and noir guitars melt down as ecstatic children sing in support of the increasingly desperate lyricisms…their voices only adding to the sense of haunted disorientation. Elsewhere, the mix reduces to hand drums and static oscillations while vibraphones sparkle like oceanic crystal. And at the end, wave sounds and prayer bowl drones return us to the fourth world environments of “Hawaiian Noir.”

In “Isles in Motion / Shipwreck Bay,” chime strands flow over seaside field recordings while vibraphones and islander hand drums establish a loose exotica groove. Synthetic harps are plucked, morphing fourth world crystals decay into the mix, electronic zithers execute zany runs across a virtual fretboard, and basslines thump through tropical jungle growth while tambourines shake out golden glitter. Eventually, the stereo field washes away as an abstracted voice lectures above the sounds of the sea, presumably signaling entrance into “Shipwreck Bay.” Guitars smear into paradise mesmerism, with touches of Hawaiian psychedelia intermingling with oceanic new age, and ambient angels sing through bodies of cosmic-aquatic light. And as rainbow colorations surround the body in amniotic warmth, tribal drum rolls flow forth from bubbling pools of neon. Helicopter oscillations and mirage guitar shimmer introduce the climactic drum beats of “Secret Fields”…a sort of slow pounding ritualism accented by e-piano chordscapes. Rolling tom fills introduce dirgey basslines while synthesizers howl into the night, bringing touches of progressive rock, only as if slowed to the speed of heroin mesmerism. Vocals flow through lush vocoder fx and evoke a sort of balearic leaning Black Sabbath, though that band’s funereal doom energies are here subverted by Callum Fairely’s dreamscape guitar ascents and these ethereal orchestrations that radiate hues of a Hollywood sunset. Shakers and ride cymbals splash through tide pools while e-pianos sparkle and during a moment where the rhythms fade away, aqueous dolphin songs and mermaid pan-pipe melodies swim across the sky. As the drums return, they stomp unencumbered, although barely-there guitars trace out haunting themes of paradise majesty. Then, after returning to the Sabbath-ian psych rock dirge, the vocals eventually fade away, leaving space for increasingly hallucinogenic tapestries of synthesized symphonic wonderment.

(images from my personal copy)