Background

I like to cruise bandcamp for ambient cassettes. Below the fold on the bandcamp homepage there is a section where you can filter by genre and by medium. Genre “Ambient”. Medium “Cassette”. Out pops a list of interesting ambient tapes. At that point I just listen to a little bit of each thing and make some decisions. This Moss Wand tape hit the sweet spot for me and I’m discovering that it gets better each time I listen to it…

Music

There is some darkness to this album. The type of playful darkness that comes from a Dan Brown book. Like, this ritual vibration has been kicking since the 13th century! We need some evil looking monks to hold up a chalice of blood to finally bring the conspiracy to it’s ultimate conclusion! If this album was the soundtrack to the Da Vinci Code, it would have changed the whole vibe. It would have ripped away the good natured plasticness that Tom Hanks lends to everything and got him in touch with the terror and fear that the plot suggests.

But the darkness is tempered. There is triumph in this album. The synth hooks are delicious and they come in to save the day after the mood has been set and seeming all is lost. Just like Tom Hanks.

There are a lot of classic synth ideas in here, slow swells, droning vocals and these delicious synth hooks over minimalist percussion grooves that get your head nodding. It’s composed in such a way where the layers keep coming, the music keeps evolving and the sound becomes thick with left-over chords and faded pads.

It’s music that gets out of the way and then demands your attention. It might not penetrate your consciousness for a while but then all of a sudden it’s there and it’s heavy.