https://maxpenticost.bandcamp.com/album/and-a-stillness-washed-over-me
Genre: Beat Ambient
Rating: 4/5
released on bandcamp July 30, 2021
Instrumental ambient tracks in the tradition of Boards of Canada. These well constructed and compositionally sound tracks evoke a sense of optimism.
I almost completely moved away from wanting to hear beats but after quite a few years of almost completely rejecting any sort of ambient with beats type of music I’ve started to yearn for beats again but only under strict guidelines. I don’t want to hear any of this MDMA techno bullshit. I remember it being like 6:00 AM at Bonnaroo and I was like enough with the goddamn beat already. Time to fucking chill. I’d had it. Every song had a nice texture but the fucking DJs seemed like they were the ones that were programmed and couldn’t think beyond the certain amount of beats per second box. After that, for a few years, if I heard a beat I cut it off and was on to the next thing. My Spotify playlists advertised themselves has “zero beats”. But finally composers starting presenting me with music where the beat complimented the tonality not the reverse. And there it was again. Electronic music, ambient in this case, with beats, that’s actually not the soundtrack for an MDMA rolling aerobics class but music that’s actually worth listening to on its own merits. And that’s what this is. Well-crafted songs, some just instrumentally rhythmic and some with percussion, that’s worth listening to. I appreciate the work that it took to put the genie back into the bottle.
Warmth Highest 