Song of the Moment

J. Cole - Lost Ones

Thursday, November 10, 2011

Washed Out - Within & Without



We're going to go forward and assume Techno Tuesday has lived a long enough, yet too short a life - and just start posting dance music when I get around to it. So it's Thursday, and we've got this electronic artist Washed Out. It's really a guy named Earnest Greene from Perry, Georgia - who considers himself one of the pioneers of the "chillwave" movement. What is that you ask? Let me tell you. Basically, it is a genre of music whose artists are often characterized by their heavy use of effects: processing, synthesizers, looping, sampling, and heavily filtered vocals with simple melodic lines. You'll hear a lot of retro type 80's stuff in these kinds of music, just because people seem to think the styles of today and the 80's blend really well together. Not sure I agree, but hey - what do I know? Turns out Greene is a librarian. He got a masters degree from South Carolina in Library and Information Science. Had no clue that existed. After he couldn't find library work, he turned to music. This album was his first, and it came out in July of this year. Track 5, 'Far Away' is a perfect way to describe the vocals on this album. They have that muffled sound to make it feel like the vocal is at a distance, but the beat and arrangement is in the forefront. The only criticism I have of this album is the lack of tempo change from start to finish. While a couple tracks still somehow manage to be slightly "dancy" - it plays through like a really somber record, which I'm not sure was the intention. I know the chillwave idea is to be well, chill - but some of this stuff you could play at a funeral, and that's not chill - it's just sad. Anyway, I like the style, and a few tracks are super cool. So I'm hoping Washed Out keeps making music, so I can keep listening to how he'll grow as an artist.

TRACK LISTING:
1. Eyes Be Closed
2. Echoes
3. Amor Fati
4. Soft
5. Far Away
6. Before
7. You and I
8. Within and Without
9. Dedication, A

Listen To Samples

Top 3 Tracks:
1. Eyes Be Closed
2. Amor Fati
3. Before

FINAL RATING:
3 out of 5 stars

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