Ambient artists often do a nifty job of distorting reality. We’re not always sure what we’re hearing or how it’s changing, although we know it is. Baltimore composer and sound designer John Somers explores such sonic uncertainty on this self-titled album as Do While, the inaugural release by Baltimore’ collective label Wigflip. In perhaps a fitting metaphor, the album has already sold out in its physical form but is available digitally. However you hear it, make sure you do: it’s an slippery experience that’s at once dense and airy, lively and adrift.
“One2′ introduces a slow-rising wave of flushed ambience and twinkling, rustling sounds before soft, wide vocals come in after two minutes. All of that eventually drops away, only to be replaced by a machine-like thump that leads straight into the broken hall-of-mirrors dazzle of the well-titled “Dancing On Diamond Water’. There are vocals again, and while one can’ make out the exact lyrics, they contribute a soothing pop element. They also recall the surreally gorgeous vocals manifest in classic My Bloody Valentine, and there’ a noisy undercurrent of shoegaze to this track, the album’ standout.
The instrumental “Balloon Clouds’ is lighter, softly glitch-y and yet still ringing with layers upon layers of meticulous resonance. It bleeds into the vocals and sublime haze of “Balloons’, which in turn becomes the mutating ambient drone of “A Candy Coated Slow Down’, another track where the title imagery perfectly suits the sounds we hear. This voluminous track really plays with the ears – especially with headphones – making it great fun in spite of its trickle of a tempo. The minute-long “Poppies’ is really just an ephemeral lead-in to the eight-minute “I Know You Said’, a flooded mirage of vocals and what sounds like an acoustic guitar loop. The closing “At The Edge Of A Drifting Dawn’ is then dreamy and aquiver with backwards melodies.
Certainly one of the most lush ambient albums in recent memory, Do While’ 42-minute opus never seems to sound exactly the same twice. It’s as if it’s in perpetual flux, never to settle and certainly never to stagnate.
Doug Wallen
