With its moments of subtle disorientation and off kilt percussive transitioning, Dusk was initially hard to love at first. The pitched down, lightly synthesized vocal styling too played as a distraction from the beautifully calming fragrance of colors drifting by as electronic and guitar instruments dance in this blissful limbo. Its five songs make a brief experience but a cohesive one with vision and inspiration melding into warm, melty fifteen minutes of lightly ambiguous but loftily interwoven music.
Sarah uses her voice with refreshing creativity, it dawns on me now how reminiscent of Grimes this may be. Utilizing reverberations, delays and echos, she sounds caught between dimensions, the words often blurring out of focus as glitches and reverbs take over. Some airy background synths catch you off guard when realizing they her chords at work. The range of temperaments has her dancing from back to foreground at times, its a treat and suits the melding of instruments woven between.
The percussion has a crucial roll, its spacious and subdued presence of fast attack claps snaps and snares play loosely defined rhythms that explore the gaps. It takes moments to lapse and sway but comes back around to its subtle glitched persona, imploring soft grooves in the process. The guitar work and electronic melodies play off this foundation with a similar elasticity, often wading in with bursts of beautiful color and tapestries of jilted, intricate melodies, oozing organically with oddities rolled in.
It is so many things, and together it has a breezy uplift that feels oddly ambiguous but that is what is so wonderful about her music. Its brimming with experimentation and creativity, the production really shows whats possible when utilizing the tools available. The opening song Cycles has a gorgeous lead guitar solo, would of been nice to hear more of that shred! Dusk is wonderful, Its just a shame the record is so short and brief, I would like to visit this odd and curious place for much longer.
Rating: 6/10