Justin Walter – Unseen Forces
Never mind unseen forces, it’s the subconscious ones you’ve got to watch out for. Justin Walter’s second LP avoids the visceral to drift along its own path, subtly and gradually teasing thoughts and emotions from the depths of your psyche. Also a member of Midwestern Afrobeat collective NOMO, Walter here investigates the capabilities of the EVI wind synthesiser, an obscure technological relic of the 70s in a series of ambient daydream haze; before long you’ll find yourself wondering why it hasn’t been used more prominently before now.
Each song is grounded in improvisatory passages, and appropriately they often have the exploratory feel of a curious wander through uncharted forests – sometimes sinister, sometimes warm yet opaque, but always with a sense of wonder at their core. The title track and follow-up Sixty find Walter slathering mournful trumpet across complex backdrops of soft piano and undulating static, respectively, but it’s the more straightforward explorations of mood that’ll hook you in.
The bleepier electronic tracks alternate between the direct and the ethereal, particularly the pulsing rush of it’s Not What You Think, but despite its variety of sound, mood and sense of purpose, Unseen Forces never feels directionless. Instead it feels like moments in time, stretched out and panned across; an experiment in perception that’s difficult to ignore once it’s started to wend its way into your brain. A gentle yet persistent treat.
Listen to: Unseen Forces, It’s Not What You Think
Buy Justin Walter - Unseen Forces on LP/CD from Norman Records