Fluttering textures swirl endlessly amidst a slew of ambient vocal samples on the opening track of Headphone Science’s Painted. Summarising much of the album as a whole, ‘5CM’ recalls the emptiness of expansive yet populated spaces with these very samples – train station announcements and airport final calls to name but a few. Sounds of engines roaring off into oblivion coat the atmosphere in a heavy yet warm vapour, encapsulating a sense of solitude provoked by themes of departure. All this comes within the limits of a glorious six minute journey but vanishes almost as soon as it appears with the trills on ‘Spirits at Night’.
Dustin Craig’s Headphone Science project is an intensely pretty experience. Though Pictures only consists of eight original tracks by Craig, followed by five remixes, there is such stylistic continuity that each composition merges seamlessly into one another. Glockenspiels and xylophones are scattered across the space of the Sokif remix of ‘Life Is a Dream’, as if it were their swan song. Elsewhere, synthetic elements take over more prominently from their organic counterparts particularly when an electronic piano and glimmering synth duel it out for attention on ‘Makoto and Mai’. Aquatic ambience haunts the feel of ‘Clouded in Treasures’, even though the beguiling melody betrays its true sentiment. Craig’ portion of the album concludes with ‘She Tried to Help Him’, a gentle, if slightly conservative end to a collection of aptly juxtaposed themes of whimsy and sorrow. With a delicacy that can only really be done justice when it envelops the listening space, Craig’s work truly benefits from the extravagance of his moniker – headphones.
Alexandra Savvides
