Sinewaves In Soft Focus

by Milieu

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da5idh Old school vibes of IDM when that was actually a good thing, glitched perc and gouged drumbeats. So many different things to find. Favorite track: Gentle Suburban Cares.

Subterranean Entrance This album’s sound reminds me of the days when I would go to the record shop, seeing some obscure cd with a Rephlex logo on it in and instantly grabbing it up not knowing what I was going to hear but was totally assured it would be fresh and interesting. This release is a delight of lo-fi break works and meandering melodies

JH Milieu never ceases to astound my fortunate ears with tracks like these. They gently hold your hand and guide you through into a magical dream slowly building wondrous feelings that fade away and remain all the same. A sublime listening experience.

James Shain Funky beats, chilled atmospheres, and a playful sense of melody drive this release straight into replay territory many times over. Showcases just how much the Milieu sound has evolved into such a mature sound of its own and then ends with a sublime piece of Ambient Favorite track: Thaliam.

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Limited Edition CD-R
Compact Disc (CD) + Digital Album
Assembled by hand, one copy at a time, in the White Pillar Workshop! A white 5" recordable disc, duplicated and printed via an Imation D20, held securely inside a white die-cut cardboard jacket with a 4x5" glossy photographic print insert and a custom green text sticker on the back. Contained inside a cast polypropylene clear sleeve with a flap, to keep your new artifact dust and moisture-free.

Includes unlimited streaming of Sinewaves In Soft Focus via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

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	1.	Gentle Suburban Cares 07:34
	2.	Brush & Mirror 06:15
	3.	Lemon Star 04:36
	4.	Rosewater 07:04
	5.	Q68 02:41
	6.	Thaliam 06:19
	7.	Subgrade Mindless 06:33
	8.	Sandy 05:41
	9.	In Flora 08:30
	10.	Windy Fields At Dusk 15:49

about

From the chilly basement studio I call the White Pillar Workshop comes a sporadic set of Milieu trax I've affectionately titled Sinewaves In Soft Focus. As it usually goes with Milieu these days, session recordings get so dense and complex and time-intensive for one album, so another album of "easy" music is usually soon to follow, something less scrutinized and more focused on playfulness and impulse-driven decisions. (If you're wondering, Housewares was the album in question - you should see the dozens of automation envelopes on each of those tracks alone!)

So, from an initial plan to generate fun quick tracks for a split with another producer, I inevitably got lost having too much fun, and it was decided that my tracks would be better issued solo. Each cut was made top to bottom in one evening of work, somewhat in the approach of the four releases I did for Project 168 so many years ago, where an entire release had to be recorded start to finish in one week (see: Simple Stations Repeat, Giants In The Desert, 1983 and Miniature Q Trax).

The thread of commonality running through these cuts is a set of low-res samples I made in 2003 of some throwaway Casio keyboard that ended up in my possession, and it will also be obvious to most seasoned listeners that I am having a blast with my Korg ER-1 all over these tracks too. There's some glitchy stuff going on here in spots, which is the side-effect of now having a small modular rig to process things in strange ways, but for the most part everything is very catchy and "classically inspired" along the lines of Rephlex essentials like Cylobian Sunset and Desktop Robotics, as well as things like the first Metamatics EPs on Clear, Jenkinson's Hard Normal Daddy and the perenially influential AFX shadow cast over a lot of my braindance stuff. There's also some obvious bits of leftover paint from Shallow Earth and Housewares, which only serve to keep things colorful and just familiar enough.

Three tracks may seem a little more than familiar: Gentle Suburban Cares previously appeared on Cottage Industries 8 at Neo Ouija in the end of 2018, and finds an appropriate home here. Subgrade Mindless is a spiritual reprise of a very very old Milieu track that was featured on one of the many Bent Appletrees releases. Windy Fields At Dusk is an alternative mix of Wand 5 from Ambell Suns, originally cut at the request of a friend who wanted it to be longer and slower - it also felt appropriate to include here, given the sound palette and atmosphere. The rest of it is brand new Milieu, jammed out under this so-called quarantine. Several attempts to maintain daily sanity and happiness while the world literally burns down and withers away outside. It's a weird time, for me, for you - be safe, and don't forget to take care of yourself too. If there's no you, and no me, there can be no us.

credits

released June 4, 2020

W/P by Brian Grainger at White Pillar, Spring 2020, except Gentle Suburban Cares (recorded at White Pillar Summer 2018) and Windy Fields At Dusk (recorded at White Pillar Winter 2017). Mastered by The Analog Botanist. Dedicated to the memory of F. Schneider, T. Allen and G.P.O. Design, text and photography by ABM&D. This is Milieu Music number MML146. www.milieu-music.com / www.analogbotany.com

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Milieu Dayton, Ohio

Psychedelic electronic music, sun-warmed analog ambient and sci-fi braindance, for cats, aliens and epicureans alike.

I also release music as Coppice Halifax: coppicehalifax.bandcamp.com

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