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Fitting snugly into the blogger-fueled trend of combining the most obscure genres possible ‘mdash; new wave to chillwave, lo-fi to no-fi to glo-fi ‘mdash; South Carolina nobody Ernest Greene mashes ’80s cheese into New Age pads and gobs of reverb for the Washed Out bedroom project. After amassing buzz with just a seven-inch single and a cassette tape, Greene has finally come through with the Life of Leisure EP, available only in digital and vinyl formats.
The six-song release operates on the same level as retro-chill contemporary Neon Indian, never straying far from the predictably innocent sound palette that gets Scottish duo Boards of Canada so much play. Cuts like ‘New Theory’ pair bassy 4/4 beats with a teenage wistfulness, leaning heavily on unintelligible vocals and bargain-bin-vinyl production. Greene fuses it all together in a way that’s unoriginal yet somehow inspiring, showcasing his timeless tastes on his sleeve without venturing too far into the unknown.
But then comes ‘Feel It All Around,’ a track so damn immediate and pleasing, a honed breath of shoegaze and minimal disco bathed in fuzz ‘mdash; a track that doesn’t have to explain itself. The message from the like-minded collection of no-fi musicians is clear: fun in the sun, sound quality be damned.
Greene’s songs end unexpectedly, which might be a deliberate aesthetic choice, now that it’s hot to sound like shit. A song like ‘You’ll See It’ revels in its worn-tape mix fading in and out, and awkward Casio presets somehow feeling again.
Washed Out may just be the next musical contradiction to get its junk washed by the online community, but Life of Leisure’s pop melodies seep through the self-imposed murk to at least make the trend a pleasant one.
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