♫♪  Gem Trails - “Aux Meadow”

With a host of projects that would certainly overwhelm less ambitious and/or organized human beings, Trevor P continues to eke out his kosmische niche (kosniche) in the US experimental underground. As head of the Fire Talk label, he curates a roster of rock- and ambient-leaning projects that range from the fuzzed-out squall of Brooklyn’s ADVAETA to the kaleidoscopic solo compositions of transient six-string shaman Drew Gibson’s Katrina Stoneheart project. As a member of Denver → Brooklyn ensemble Woodsman, he pounds out hi-fi psych shred charged with tight two-guitar interplay and meditative expanses of kraut rock rhythm. His solo work under the Gem Trails moniker focuses the surges of cosmic drone texture characteristic of Woodsman’s driftier moments into discrete songs that each offer their own abstract miniature narrative.

“Aux Meadow,” our first preview of Gem Trails’ forthcoming Apartments For Lucy (due July 14 on Fire Talk) showcases Trevor P’s evolving approach to layered solo composition, offering some of the project’s most crystalline production flourishes on record. Electronic percussion that borders on contemporary hip-hop (see: stuttering hi-hats, tuned 808 toms, reversed bass drum bursts) sits at the forefront of the mix, juxtaposed against lingering walls of chordal comping. Lead phrases bubble out of the fog into the upper register and compound into an arrhythmic patchwork of recursive melody. Echoes of what could be vocalizations fill the gaps with distorted traces of human presence. Instead of competing for our attention, each of these elements gently files into its region of the wide spread — yielding a session whose density never smothers its weightlessness.

• Gem Trails: https://gemtrails.bandcamp.com
• Fire Talk: http://firetalkrecs.com

Chocolate Grinder

CHOCOLATE GRINDER is our audio/visual section, with an emphasis on the lesser heard and lesser known. We aim to dig deep, but we’ll post any song or video we find interesting, big or small.

Most Read



Etc.