slow it again in 2010

The hills are alive with the sounds of Bieber.

For those hipsterly-but-passively interested in ambient music and its fellow travelers, the reference point has been Sigur Ros since the late '90s.  Then Along Came Bieber.  Electronic musician (now minor celebrity) Shamantis changed the tempo of Bieber's "U Smile" by -800%, and when the dust from the kerfuffle settled, there were dozens of others slurring their own selections, now lovingly curated at Slow It Up.  Think of it as chopped & screwed for white people.

However, there's always been ambient worth listening to, from Wieland Samolak to Music For Cats To Sleep To. And now we have Balam Acab's debut EP: See Birds.

 

Though it draws from the bass-heavy traditions of what we like to call fuckcore (sometimes called witch house by the uninitiated), and was released on the often terrifying Tri-Angle, See Birds is more soft-focus, gauzy dream sequence than Salem nightmare.  Balam Acab, otherwise known as Alec Koone, says it best on his Myspace page: "NO WITCHES IN THIS HOUSE!" This is not music for the witching hour.  Cavernous, soaring and aquatic, with an operatic vocal somehow reminiscent of the lady inside Eraserhead's radiator, this is one that softly and hauntingly rattles amongst the china cups of the tea-time brain.   

 Get it from Rough Trade.  Press play.  In heaven, everything is fine.