Sarah Longfield "Dusk" (2020)

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

Sarah Longfield "Disparity" (2018)

Following up on the captivating Collapse // Expand record, talented Guitarist Sarah Longfield takes a freeing step forward with Disparity, an album that further unshackles the chains of this colorful Post-Djent sound. With a notably more polished production Sarah lets her creativity and vision flourish in directions that feel unconstrained as her monstrous 8-string guitar drifts from focus and the other instruments, often electronic and welcoming, blossom into various avenues of exotic and cultural sound.

There are still two tracks that revolve around her excellent guitar playing. Cataclysm spurs up the dizzying Gru melodies and the following Sun has a noticeable gleaming guitar lead reminiscent of Sithu Aye. Sun, however, entangles its lead guitar with goosebumps conjuring exotic, alluring xylophone chords. They resonate with a summery warmth as the song then pivots with a Smooth Jazz saxophone lick, its reminiscent of 90s daytime TV theme songs to be heard again on the next two.

These are just a couple of examples in this stunning record loaded with bright, colorful, warm and harmonious instruments diving into luscious avenues over and over again. Every track has its own flavor and they are held together with recurring electronic tones and a slightly Ethereal vibe enhanced by Sarah's singing. She finds a new vocal approach, with a layering and harmony that reminds me fondly of Autumn's Grey Solace. Its mostly instrumental but she pops in at just the attune times.

The music offers so much and her percussive composure is exquisite, rarely falling into a simple beat, commanding momentum with shifts and turns that utilize other instruments in its build up. The drums often mingle in with the various electronic tones and uncommon percussive sounds too. Their is cohesion on all fronts and my only criticism may be that these songs never escape the three to four minute range. That may be a conscious decision but given the sheer excellent compositions at work, it feels like a time constraint of sorts given the progressive and expansive style of sound at play. This is the sort of record that's hard to tire yourself of. I can't get enough of it!

Favorite Tracks: Sun, The Fall

Rating: 8/10

Sarah Longfield "Collapse // Expand" (2017)

Sarah Longfield is one of a fair few rising stars in the "Youtube Musician" world that's been steadily growing over these last few years. Her flashy guitar skills and rainbow paint 8 string guitar stand out in the crowd. A new single and music video had me come check this record out! However I just learned its actually over a year old but who says you can't release singles for old songs? Its definitely one of the best songs of the albums ten tracks which clock in at thirty seven minutes.

Sarah's style falls very snugly into the colorful, guitar revolving post-Djent sound that's seen Meshuggah's violent use of 8-strings guitars somehow evolve into a fruitful musical forum of bright, luminous guitar playing that puts dazzling melodies and blazing lead guitar skills at the forefront of its ambitious sound. It mostly began with Animals As Leaders and Gru who Sarah doesn't distinguish her music from much with this record. The jittery, fluttering electronic percussion and sweeping, looping melodies feature heavily and with tracks like "Concentration Chaos" where she actually steps further into the electronic side of this sound with a very interesting composition that's got an alien, yet harmless, curious atmosphere about it.

The electronics are a huge part of this record and the opening song "A New Discovery" doesn't make a first impression well. Its opening guitar chords and glitched synth noises sound almost lifted from the Animals As Leaders blueprint. However as the album develops its electronic presence becomes integral as sweeping synths, busying melodies and all flavors of rich synth tones wrap themselves around the guitars with a dreamy helping of reverberation. In some moments the lead guitar tones even seem to merge or morph with them as its layers of sounds work in tandem.

The Djent aspect is really downplayed. No big punching tones are accentuated and the moments where the music drops back to rhythm guitar are sparse and well executed with temperate grooves and light yet punchy distortions. The lead guitar playing is phenomenal with luscious two handed tapping sweeping up and down the strings in semi acoustic tones, interchanging with traditional lead playing with a pick, all across bright, colorful and inspired melodies one can follow with adventure. Her vocals too feature at attune moments where her soft and meek voice can find its space to evolve the atmosphere.

These songs are wonderful at breezing their way through a journey. With a lack of traditional song structure they twist and turn, weaving their webs with a sense of journey that has you riding the melody from one moment to the next. Its the density of the additional elements around the lead guitar that really solidify and holds its presence to command a bright, warm, slightly alien atmosphere that's intriguing and charming from start to finish.

Favorite Tracks: Ember, Tydes, Illuminate

Rating: 7/10