Mixtape: Afloat
I can't fall asleep to music; my brain is too busy dissecting its melodies, textures and rhythms to fully rest, even if I find the music restful. As I've gotten older, sound has become more sensitive to my way of interacting with the world — deeper and engaged, but as a sort of earned and learned wisdom. (But also a mish-mash of too much and everything.) The opposite was true as a teenager: I could sleep to any music, including and especially metal — I assume that had more to do with my physical body's needs and less with analysis, but also just an underdeveloped (but not less true) form of viscera.
So … Six Organs of Admittance's Sleep Tones — four, side-long ambient tracks composed for snoozing — was never going to have its intended effect on me. Still, though, I recently set the mood: low lighting, fluffy pillows, a chill CBD seltzer (Marz Elixir's highly recommended juniper fizz) and a comic (Batman Eternal — not exactly relaxing reading, but escapist nonetheless). Ambient tones drift quietly, but, to my surprise, somewhat quickly, never quite leaving the same space, broken apart by whistling winds and pulsing bass notes. There is a soothing sense of balance — a gentle, if incessant, shift that distributes the mind outward, yet brings you back into your own orbit. At the end of side 1, I hadn't fallen asleep, but felt the weight of blissful stasis; thankfully, the vinyl version comes with a locked groove on each side, so the lull just loops. —Lars Gotrich
Stream the Viking's Choice mixtape via BNDCMPR. Follow my Bandcamp collection. Tracklist below:
Sheer Mag, "All Lined Up"
Corker, "Edge of Teeth"
Dahlia Seed, "Jet Spin"
Sundays & Cybele, "肉色の計算用紙 (55 Ghost)"
Erkin Koray, "Krallar"
Setting, "Zoetropics"
夢遊病者, "Silesian Fur Coat"
Kekal, "Rotten in the House"
By Storm, "Double Trio"
The Hand, "Love Potion (#2183)"
Kate Gentile, "r.a.t.b.o.t.B"
Trichomopniasis, "Oligonucleotide Hybridization Probe"
Afterbirth, "Tightening the Screws"
Mary Lattimore (feat. Meg Baird & Walt McClemnents), "And Then He Wrapped His Wings Around Me"
Piotr Kurek, "Harps"
Moniek Darge & Vanessa Rosetto, "Lincoln 2"
Sydney Spann, "Waulking"
Bewilder, "Breaking"
Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders, "Star Power"
ONYON, "Alien Alien"
Jobber, "Summerslam"
Half Stack, "I Might Try"
Masakatsu Takagi, "Marginalia #140"
Fred Thomas, "Holland Tunnel"
Armand Hammer (feat. Pink Siifu) (produced by DJ Haram), "Trauma Mic"
Diana Starshine (produced by Estle, Ari Liloia, Diana Starshine and Galen Tipton), "drippin"
Jet Jaguar, "Grading Honey"
Natalia Beylis, "Afloat in Fog and Feathers"
Wreathe, "The King is Risen"
Movie Club, "Thresher"
Moray, "The Sun"
Dead Leaf Echo, "Call"
Lao Dan, "空⼭唤曲 Empty Mountain Calling"
Six Organs of Admittance, "Alnilam"