JWS - My Mylar Lungs (Multidim Records)

 

Title: My Mylar Lungs

Artist: JWS

Label: Multidim Records

Cat Number: 

Genre: Minimal Folk Techno/Ambient

1: leaf blowr

2: gardn

3: sunbathr

4: 92’ point shoos

5: 92’ tutoo

6: flying buttrss

7: glu jemz

Although I have no idea what “minimal folk techno” is, I’m all for looking into its proclivities if pointed in the right direction. I suppose its an idea that’s been bubbling under for some time now. A lot of the music I’ve been sent over the past few years has had a pastoral veneer, existing within an inner landscape reared and nurtured in a rural environment. Up until now though, all of this bucolic hauntology has originated from Britain, particularly the south of England. ‘My Mylar Lungs’ - a title that feels very much at odds with its contents - comes from the US and is the work of Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens, aka JWS. And the impression it makes is a recognisable one, but also something that is difficult to categorise. Having said that, it broadly straddles the ambient/dubby divide. Perking up tonally 5 tracks in with ‘92’ tutoo’, a track which is brought into sharper relief by ‘flying buttrss’, only to dissipate into textural bliss in the shape of ‘ glu jemz’; the collectio0n starts with ‘leaf blowr’. A deceptively complex piece of deep, dawn of time beat – driven ambience, sounding not unlike an imaginary soundtrack accompanying the boat down the river Styx. On ‘gardn’ and ‘sunbathr’ there is development, with the former climbing down tonally from its predecessor, preparing the ground for the more bottom – heavy approach of what follows. In short, it undulates before the nursery rhyme fragility of ‘92’ point shoos’. Do I know what I’m talking about? Probably. Do these impressions have the slightest relevance to what I’m describing? Absolutely. Have I done this collection justice? God knows. I like it very much though, and really feel the effort and thought that has gone into its creation. It resonates with me, which is what really matters.