Review Summary: Triumph of the hopeful and serene over some sad and busy living
When in the position of the "home-recording" artist, there are certain limitations that one must always navigate. How an artist chooses to rectify their lack of resources will often define them, with an instantly identifiable aesthetic or approach to textures or songwriting. Canadian musician and producer Hyacinth has been slowly developing his own distinguishable sound for several years, consistently drawing from genres like idm, ambient, glitch, breaks, and more to craft familiar, but creative, expressions. Our Sympathy sees Hyacinth at his most refined and expansive, incorporating a wide array of textures that soothe and excite without straying from the artist's unspoken statement of himself.
First, our world seems to be made up of gentle keyboards that play off one another, layered and delayed with spacey noises that provide an ambient backbone. The third song, Mansion of Ice, introduces percussion in a big way, through a driving and dynamic 7-minute ambient techno piece. The chord progressions are lush and gorgeous, and the rhythms are grounded but playful. Near the end of this song two keyboard melodies entwine in a sublime suspension. This track, to me, is the pinnacle of Hyacinth's songwriting. The album picks up from here with three dancy and upbeat pieces, each with their own purpose. The final of these three, Karma Houdini, is a boisterous and electrified jam that even includes massively distorted vocals.
The last curveball is the song Hypocrisy is the Key, a complete breakcore tune that fails to fall into genre traps or sound stale, conquering another texture for Hyacinth's palette. Our Sympathy has truly defined itself by this point, and follows suit with more subdued sounds to usher us toward our exit. And yet, we know we would be welcome back any time we like. Because this is home-grown art that pulls you into it's sympathetic world, offers you a smile with no pretense whatsoever.
