Mpala Garoo is another of my top finds from Russia's underground - actually, this one was given to me by Twilight Owls - and is one of the better artists I've come across. Just one man - Ivan - plays a similar kind of summery tropical heat-haze as Ducktails. There's a fifteen minute, four track album available to download from Last.fm track by track, which I've reposted here.
The first track Open Way Up High's reverb soaked chillwave swing feels very much in thrall to Landscapes, which is no complaint at all. It is a beautifully languid shimmer of a track that lasts for an all too short 2.24 - I could easily leave this on repeat for twenty minutes and not tire of it. The second tracks wheezy little organ flourish adds a wonderful background tone to the similar lithe guitar work shaking it's hips around the foreground while a shuffling conga beat gently harries it. Magic Fiesta has a bit of the spooky jungle groove of High Wolf about it - gurgling drums and a slightly warped focus make it a progression and deviation from the previous two tracks to signify something worthwhile going on out there.
01. Open Way Up High
02. Primitiittii
03. Magic Fiesta
04. Kid Island
Ivan also plays in Sunbells Fenimore; a project that features the same island guitar tone and pace from Mpala, but it's fattened out with some deeper oceanic riffs; thick trancy tendrils of tone that weave around the bubbles of guitar notes, and pushes things that much further away from the safety of the shoreline - things gets pretty turbulent in Paradising, but no less hypnotic as the chaotic crashing and fizzing carries the metaphor of the sea, blistering heat, salty spray and boiling breakers into sonic realisation. I guess there's a Nu-Age flotation element to it, despite the more caustic nature it retains a sense of centred focus that the more musically kinetic Mpala doesn't have. It's a natural deviation; recalling the fiery return to Earth of Oneohtrix Point Never or the tranquility of Dolphins Into The Future, a lucid sky-gazing treatise on sun-soaked mystical spirituality. Go to his BANDCAMP for three tracks of meditational serenity.
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