On his newest EP, “Asset / Defect” Tristan Welch explores a timeless dichotomy of positive and negative expansions and contractions through space, silence, time and sound. Through glassy, shifting drones and tone poem movements ringing present, like a warm blanket after a cold night adrift on the nights moon last beam. The album opens up with beautifully articulated mid tempo oscillating synth pulses, a faint buzzing underscored with a warm bath of tones; a calm yet slightly unnerving respite; a rest for the restless, for the anxious, and for the forgotten. This is slow patient, music, for one in a process of uncertainty, as well as one of discovery knows that things can change, and every once in a great while, for the better, and maybe this time they will, that is the question this music asks, what is change, and when will it be cast upon us?
‘Given the inherently political nature of most of his music, “Asset / Defect” is a rare turn inward for Welch. As a person in recovery, “Asset / Defect” is an audio/visual accounting of sorts, a result from tallying up the ledger of negative character defects and positive assets. An accounting feat that is musically reflected in the clear balance between beautiful, ebullient tones and grainy distortion held at tension within the work.”
The A side “Asset / Defect” seems a bit brighter in sound presentation overall but across the twenty minute EP, Welsh offers two movements which compliment each other in a dichotomy of undulation. Wet delays and thick intertwined braids of reverberated strings cast doubt to those casting doubt, give hope to those giving hope, and push us all to look inward to a change of fresh air and relief. The B side offers a similar, more contemplative, introspective place where the listener can identify with these living breathing wave manipulations, like a warm bath, tingling the skin, but never fully encapsulating the full dynamic of touch and pressure. Beautiful music for complicated times.
Highly recommended.
-Dr. Decaycast
D E C A Y C A S T Magazine 