Sequence of the Negative Space Changes (Review)
Tomorrowland is from approximately the same area in Michigan as space rockers Fuxa, Asha Vida, Auburn Lull, and quite a few others. Conspiracy theorists might ponder whether every so often a town like Dearborn Heights or Denton, Texas, gets some sort of mind-altering chemical dumped in its water. This chemical would predominately affect males in their twenties, causing them to fixate easily on repetitious sounds, and twitch with glee over various sheens of guitar tone.
Intro to review aside, Nick Brackney and Steve Baker don’t go quite as deep into space as some of their nearby soundsmiths. Sequence of the Negative Space Changes makes me think more of what a kid might make if he got for a Christmas present, Radio Shack’s “101 Electro-Ambient Beautiful Noise Experiments You Can Do At Home.”
The whole disk is nice and airy, never a dissonant note for too long, and if one does appear, it just serves to make the sweet sounds sweeter. Sometimes this approach can seem a bit tiring, and you might wish for a bit more variety — like in the way the Stars of the Lid make disks of unchanging tones, yet changing atmospheres.
There’s definitely two ways a piece can go on Sequence of the Negative Space Changes; either it can chirp along, nicely artificial and keyboard-y, or guitars emerge glacially and bring on that reverse-reverb euphoria that we all know and love from MBV, lovesliescrushing, and just about everyone on the Darla and Kranky Records roster. I would recommend Tomorrowland keep both ways of doing things, as the former suggests an endearing, childlike quality, setting one up nicely to be blown away by the latter, more grandly ethereal statements.
Written by Pearson Greer.