Browsing Tag

Meditative

Graffiti Welfare tells his anxious coming of age story in the trippy meditative alt-electro album, Revolving Shores

Posted on 23 June 2022

Revolving Shores is the gravity-defyingly meditative debut album from the up-and-coming artist and producer Graffiti Welfare. After appearing on the airwave in 2018 through his EP, Into the Soul of Space, which has been extensively playlisted & lauded by critics, the Austin-born, Denver-based artist let the world in on his coming of age anxiety.

Regardless of your age, there is ample resonance in the LP that explores the profoundness of loss in context to perceptions of reality. As someone who has only recently lost their mum after a long illness, I’m pretty reasonably qualified to attest to the efficaciously comforting gentle tenacity in the 10-track release.

Revolving Shores gently eases you in through the minimalist melodic opening score, To Be It, which almost rings with neo-classic cinematic atmosphere, then cruises right on into my personal favourite, Just Follow, which reflects the feeling of unravelling as you lose direction.

DejaBlue picks up a little more melancholy through its genius titular metaphor for carbon copy ennui before Good News flirts with elements of coldwave EDM. What is easily the biggest experimental triumph the album, Synesthesia, dips into far more indie territory, with nuances of post-punk in the chilling, stabbing and distorted angular notes. SeaShell as the closing single was an all too efficaciously entrancing way of ensuring that Revolving Shores doesn’t leave you without sticking to your synapses first.

Graffiti Welfare Said

“Revolving Shores evolved from watching my childhood fade into the unknown as grandparents and friends passed away while I was coping with coming-of-age anxiety. By day, I was trying to finish my thesis and escape the clutches of graduate school with my sanity intact.

By night, I wanted to make sense of everything by creating something sincere, unique and tangible. Each track represents a lucid perspective that builds from the last, guiding a quiet meditation towards the unknown and back into waking life. Rinse, float, repeat – cause who knows where you will wake up next?”

Revolving Shores was officially released on June 17th. You can check it out for yourselves by heading over to Spotify and SoundCloud.

To keep up to date with the latest releases from Graffiti Welfare, follow him on Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Saint Germain delivers kaleidoscopic quiescence in his reflective ambient alt-indie release, ONUS

Posted on 22 February 2022

The up and coming artist, Saint Germain, proved that he’s the Chris Isaak of this generation with his gently innovative latest release, ONUS. The 21-year-old self-taught artist has been working on his ambient sonic style since 2008. There are still hints of his influences’ style in the soundscapes. Yet, instead of becoming yet another Bon Iver or Frank Ocean assimilator, he’s carved his own intricately intimate path, and ONUS unfolds as an absorbing milestone in his career.

The colourfully trippy melodies paired with the Canadian’s quiescent vocals that sit between etherealism and warm soul ensure that even after the mellow-yet-haunting-all-the-same single comes to an accordant end, it will stay with you for long after.

ONUS was written at 3 AM during a spate of situational insomnia. You can practically hear the nodes of delirium in the meditative production that was crafted as a reflection to the feeling detachedly adrift. There are as many questions in the lyrics as there are answers – making it feel so much more human than your average release. There’s nothing more humbling than soul-deep confusion, which goes a fair way in explaining why, despite its soft layers, ONUS hits bruisingly hard.

You can check out the official lyric video to ONUS by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast