Back catalogue: Balearic/Downtempo

Review: "Remembering is not the opposite of forgetting," Casey MQ sings at the start of Later that day, the day before, or the day before that, his new LP and Ghostly International debut. It's a phrase fittingly misremembered from something the LA-based, Canadian-born composer came upon, as he spiraled into unconscious and subconscious-led writing sessions at the piano. Musing on the joys of the selective-amnesiac tendency of the creative flow state, MQ makes riveting use of classical-synthetic composition - piano parts run through copious effects chains, vocal parts run through subtly humanised, formant-shifted and note-bent pitch correctors - to produce a sublime amnestic union. But to forget is also to forgive: hence the word 'amnesty' and its common root with amnesia. This is a profoundly forgiving record, with 'Grey Gardens' and 'Me, I Think I Found It' finding a profound space of acceptance for the days coming and going, for solitude and for new leaves uncovered in amnestic carvings-out and turnings-over.

Review: Ghostly International come through with belated double LP vinyl edition of In Decay, the second LP from Seth Haley, better known as Com Truise, which was originally issued digitally back in 2012. Here you have thirteen diverse tracks ranging from funky, boogie-inspired drum machine soul to more watery soundscapes and creative little collages. The opener itself, "Open", is a majestic ride into the sun. The successive track, "84 Dreamin", is just as good if not better, and this process repeats itself another eleven times, until the end of this epic journey into sound.