Tuesday, August 5, 2014

Dawn Golden's Still Life


Dawn Golden is a Diplo protege, has released his new album on Downtown/Mad Decent and amazingly sounds nothing like anything related to either of those things. Still Life is electronic, but it's potentially the most emotionally draining record you're hear all year and is so full of melancholic brilliance it could make your therapist rich. If you could take chillwave as a genre and sandwich it between an r&b quiet storm you'd have the soundworld that Dawn Golden inhabits.

Still Life is a slow moving journey through an emotional treasure trove that feels like it was recorded in a dream by dreamers for dreamers. It's minimal beats, massive washes, detached vocals, and atmospheric vibe feels like it's not even real. The whole record sounds like the noise you hear when you are somewhere between drifting off into unconsciousness and cracking your eyes open. It's an aural horizon that never seems to end and that's ok. Dawn Golden has come up with something that's tender, fragile and almost too intimate for personal consumption. None the less, Still Life is a lovely effort that's endearing because it's so far gone.

Containing not one summer pop hit Still Life instead wins you over by overwhelming your senses with a veritable blanket of sound. Dawn Golden's ability to create intimate atmospheres that stretch into eternity is remarkable. The whole thing should just put you to sleep or bore you to death but it's so odd, so well done and so riveting that I couldn't help but listen to it four times back to back.

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