Monday, June 7, 2010

Julian Lynch on Underwater Peoples Records


I first was exposed to Julian on a split he did with Ducktails Matt Mondanile for Underwater Peoples. The tracks on that single, if I remember correctly, were similar to Matt's working style, layers of loops, a little dark, hypnotic. I separate their work from the typical ambient field recording because it tends not to have any kind of electronics involved on the recording itself...it's only used to manipulate all kinds of weird source material, but not in a DJ way...I guess this is sort of a neo-folk method of sound appropriation? Like 'Entroducing' for the Woodsist set.

This single gets more songwriter-y. I'm hearing Grandaddy a little bit, maybe it's the keyboard sound on 'Droplet on a Hot Stone'. It has a sort of warm tone, probably mic'd an amp after the fact. That's a great idea, it's that kind of thing that keeps this interesting, the sounds all have layers of patina from process driven recording. There's all kind of textures going on here...I still can't get over that while recording devices have gotten cheaper and smaller and digital, the final released sounds from bands across the spectrum of stuff I've been into lately appears to be moving in the opposite direction.
Just like Sebadoh reintroducing home recording to the indie world, reacting against commercial music, maybe this is a reaction against the technology itself as it becomes less and less personal, people start circuit bending or buying 7"'s...to regain a little of the humanity in the recording process.
'Nen Vole' could almost be a Real Estate lost track...Julian finds a strummed guitar groove and sticks with this very classic melody, sort of a waltz, back and forth, up and down...waves rolling in on the Jersey Shore...Oh God, not that TV show, a different part of the Jersey Shore....there's a dock somewhere on an inlet in Jersey, there's cattails and dragonflies, there's a few waves just hardly rolling in, disturbing the mirror of water...it's that sort of Jersey. The garage next door is open, Julian is rehearsing with himself on every instrument, and recorded a couple of tracks for Underwater Peoples....go get it.

Underwater Peoples says:

Julian Lynch is from Ridgewood, New Jersey. The songs featured on this 7” single were originally created for the 2008 album, Born2Run. The recordings contain both acoustic and electric guitar, a drum kit, a keyboard and Julian’s voice. Everything was recorded on a TASCAM Portastudio 424. While the initial taping began in Julian’s family basement (birthplace of the Alex Bleeker and The Freaks debut), the brunt of the work took place in an empty apartment in Madison, Wisconsin. In a new town with no furniture, Julian recorded the album.

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