Matt Scatchell has been lurking behind New York mixing desks, learning the fader sliding and knob twiddling arts, helping an array of often well known artists sound much better in the process.
This year he's decided to come out of the studio shadows and into the public spotlight, by way of some very pleasant sounding ambient recordings, and I'm all ears. His debut LP, Above was released in September and it's a sedate suite of hazy etherealism, scuffed with magnetic tape hiss. The tracks have a nagging familiarity to them, an almost zeitgeisty generative quality that some ambient purists will disapprove of but which most people, myself included, will find oddly comforting. The tracks fall together very nicely, and if you're after a quick album plunge rather than playlist sound bath soak then I recommend you slip right in.
He's also making up for lost time. One month on from the LP he's just dropped a new, minimal, somewhat chirpier ambient adjacent tune. Kicking off with a hypnotic acoustic refrain, it's soon joined by some distant "other roomy" vocals and then pleasing electronic and guitar feedback which adds a hazy, shoegazy effect although, in this rather too short song, the moment is short lived as the acoustic motif rapidly regains ascendancy to see us out safely. Give him a listen and a like he's doing good things.
Playlist Companion
You can find Scatchell in good company at the Slowtronic Playlist.
Comments