Review Summary: Breathing: a guide
Matthew Cooper’s 13th full length nugget of sounds is, despite what the ugly mouthful that is the album title would seem to suggest, assertively uncomplicated. Contained within
Consensus Reality (beyond whirring marvels) are strings, chimes, keys and smiles. They are aligned with sparseness. They are all very soft and also very shiny. The result: the maximum degree of chubb (i mean, erm, happiness) attainable in 41 sweet lil’ minutes.
It, in other words, is big-cuddle-ambient o’ clock with fluffy classical trimmings and a generous serving of post-rock grandiosity, absent the tactlessness. Just how modest this blend is may well be its most interesting feature: the toolkit is tiny, yet the
feels are BIG. See latecomer “Endless Flower” for the full deets: an instructive bundle of squishy adorableness conjured via piano-fluttering, synth-singing and meadow-shimmering. It, as can be said of nearly all cuts here, is the type of sound place that makes you want to build a cottage in the woods and bathe in the sea and be in bed by 8:30pm. That is a good thing.
Uh oh, a potential actual critique (eek):
Consensus Reality, by virtue of the aforementioned airy kindness, is not all that eventful. Its songs are generally brisk, compositions tame, nuances readily graspable and holistic color palette decidedly uniform. Such quiet unobtrusiveness may (I suspect) put some dents in replay value, and certainly leaves my withered intellect thoroughly unquenched; BUT at least my breathing is a lot calmer now thank you for asking. Space to think is underrated, and I’d much rather take a discount on longevity for the T&C-free serotonin provided upfront and un-besmirched.
I hyperventilated a lot this week. It was, erm, not a good week. Is that because a fellow sputnikmusic.com frendo force-fed me two hecking hours of noisy psychedelic improvised death this morning? Probably. I’m okay, though. The sun is shining, the birds are chirping, and the Eluvium is on repeat. Inhale. Exhale. We all need reminding, sometimes.
