Whettman Chelmets – The Rain, The Pour
The Rain, The Pour
Whettman Chelmets
May 13, 2020
To me, there are not many artists that represent the more engaging aspects of Vaporwave so successfully as Mindspring Memories. Each track the artist produces roars with a sublime hugeness, the feeling of an unfathomable, indescribable form washes over the listener with each track. This description is incredibly pertinent when talking about Remembering Your Earth Form. The 4-track journey is heart-achingly engaging.
On The Window Sill starts off proceedings with whirling guitars and cascading percussion. The beautiful instrumentation envelops the listener, an intense amount of care has been taken to ensure that every frequency is represented in full detail. The environment is incredibly echoed, but the crafted melodies lose absolutely none of their shine. One is reminded of the back catalogue of Christopher Cross. Time is taken to create a breathtakingly nostalgic sound, heaped with perennially engaging movements. A medley of vocal and saxophone melodies dance together, dripping emotion as the remnants of the sound are lost within the maelstrom of the song. A precedent of care and attention to detail is birthed early on. Too much in the genre artists are pushed to copy and paste something they haven’t necessarily taken time with. This, in contrast, is incredibly intricate and special.
Lush & Sleeping pulses into existence. We hear echoes of it without hearing the real thing at first, preordained whispers of the magnificent delight of what is to come. Beautiful sounds and melodies cascade in reverse all around the listener. Until you are lifted off of the ground by low, powerful bass movements. The untouchable beauty of the saxophone creates an atmosphere that invites a dangerous amount of nostalgic feeling. Its melody seems to emanate endlessly through the phased pulses, causing a hypnagogic sadness that all but drowns you. The saxophone dances, its high points emotive and its low points smooth and melancholy. After a while, the beauty is lost once more inside the ever-flowing, dizzying stream that Mindspring Memories creates.
Soft Evening Companion tends to a more menacing sadness. The introduction sounds like Don Henley 1000 years into the future. We are treated to more incredible saxophone, which serves to enliven the introverted atmosphere of the track. There is an extended amount of time in which no instrument breaks rank, they all float eerily in front of the listener. The variety of the percussion begins to make you believe that this could be a full-band recording, a feeling that surely can’t be true, as such a beautiful atmosphere is created that it must’ve been a painstaking production process. All melodious parts of the track move as one, as if they are in their own unique bubble. Amorphous, but fluid in their movements. The saxophone finally brings about a crescendo around 4 minutes into the track. The drums crash sending an endless echo through a wormhole towards the listener. Only to have the atmospheric pads and foreboding ride cymbals flow around you once again. Some sounds give the impression of being concealed within infinite watery caves, the sound drips out as if it’s coming from miles away, bouncing off the edge of a deep, dark hole. The saxophone’s bleeding lament leads this beautiful, sorrowful track.
You Are The Sunset plays a lot more subtly than the rest of the tracks. The keys are warm and welcoming, with too much friendliness to sound as melancholy as the melodies that preceded it. Looped percussion flutters in the background. Bright piano riffs wake the listener from a somnambulistic listen. The song is altogether comforting, and as the clicking rim-shot snare comes in to drive the track into a floaty effervescence, you feel whole. The track lasts an astounding 25 minutes, but has the quality and perennity to last for the rest of time.
This truly is a completing album, so much agonising heartbreak has been poured into these tracks. Mindspring Memories crafts an intricate experience that rewards with each listen.
Listen here:
https://aloecityrecords.bandcamp.com/album/remembering-your-earth-form