Review Summary: Goodness
Whilst not overly familiar with the term or its origins, I have been informed (reliably, I hope) that ‘New-Age’ is one of those select few genres of music that can claim to be free from almost any semblance of stylistic unity. As I understand it, the term was coined in conjunction with the associated cultural movement to delineate the transcendental, spiritual quality of particular pieces of music: those tunes that foster feelings of creativity, optimism and peace, particularly where specifically designed to do so. A rather arbitrary and outmoded label, you might say, given how most music has the capacity to cultivate such feelings. Indeed, the term’s utility became further watered-down in the 80s and 90s, following its lazy application to albums whose eclecticism evaded neat classification, leading to many artists protesting upon its application to their output.
Ray Lynch was one such artist, reportedly wishing to avoid association with a body of work that he regarded as “mediocre and boring”. An unwillingness to be boxed-in by the favoured vernacular of music critics at the time is an understandable frustration; and yet, unfortunately for Ray, it seems rather difficult to deny, at least on some level, that
Deep Breakfast is New-Age-y as heck.
Lynch’s home-produced, sophomore LP is a captivating, galactic odyssey; fusing the compositional grace of classical, the light-touch of ambient and free spirit of the aforementioned ‘mixed-bag’ genre into one of the most soothing records that the 80s has to offer. Tunes like
Falling In The Garden encapsulate (what I can only imagine might be) the feeling of floating away on solar winds, drifting by in a sea of faded purples, absent of worry or any sense of urgency.
Your Feeling Shoulders follows suit, working orchestral strings and delicate crescendos into the cosmic mix whilst remaining in the same carefree headspace. To suggest that such tracks possess a genuinely therapeutic quality would be a mild overstatement, but honestly not far off, given just how reassuring these star-speckled soundscapes are.
Although bumbling along at an unregimented pace, the tunes here have a kinetic, effervescent air to them. Warm, catchy synth leads burst out of
Celestial Soda Pop and
Rhythm in the Pews, their plucky, space-aged melodies skipping between one another in a gorgeous celebration of neon. The hyper-textural
The Oh Of Pleasure and
Tiny Geometries take a slightly different tact, their candyfloss arpeggios oscillating without direction, forming a more percussive patchwork of sound. These surprisingly varied passages find unity in their consistently otherworldly and meditative tone, drifting into the remit of New-Age despite taking cues from more traditional, symphonic roots.
In order to wrap up the above hodgepodge of loosely-connected adjectives and airy statements about genre-tropes, I was tempted to stitch together a rather over-the-top, pseudo-profound conclusion: something about the classical foundation of the record propelling New-Age music to new heights, such that Lynch’s dissatisfaction with the label becomes more understandable and justified; or an
oh-so-brave and
o r i g i n a l denouncement of genre-labels as a concept, using
Deep Breakfast’s formlessness as a shining example of their disutility (with an ever-so-slight hint of irony, given that the review’s narrative leans so heavily on such labels as an explanatory tool). Instead, controversially, I’m going to tell you how I
feel (apologies). And how I feel, when listening to
Deep Breakfast at least, is
good. Given that, in the current sociopolitical climate, there are a fair few things going on that aren’t so
good, it feels especially
good to feel
good. Which, in and of itself, is
good. And because I feel especially
good, which is
good (as established (see above)), it follows that
Deep Breakfast, which is the cause of
the good, is also
good. Which is why I am informing you, patient reader, that
Deep Breakfast is, as you may now be aware,
good, and why, if you think it feels
good to feel
good, you should listen to
Deep Breakfast, and feel
good. Because it is
good.
