Shimmering Basset

The Green Child is the once long-distance, now based in the same house recording project of Raven Mahon (furniture maker and former member of Grass Widow) and Mikey Young (recording engineer and band member of Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring).

The duo draw their spectral pop sound from an illusory past as much as they stalk into pastures new. Broadly retro-futuristic in scope, verdant acres of lushly evocative synthesizers and vintage drum machines underpin most of The Green Child’s upbeat yet decidedly uncanny songs. Raven's calmly scenic and measured vocal flits like a will-o'-the-wisp throughout the tracks, proffering a guiding hand as she walks us through the often eerie electronic concoctions.

The Green Child acknowledge an interesting array of musical cues from New Musik via Sade to Hot Chocolate, the latter most keenly felt on the slinky groove behind Dreamcom, a song about relying on memory as an anchor for intimacy. Clockwork sequencing, drawbar organ amid bouncing guitar spirals and a lightness of vocal touch make for a potent potion. The duo even cover Resurrection by Canadian 60’s popsmith Andy Kim later on the record, turning his orchestral ‘hymn of searching’ into a grandiose tower of overlapping drones, languid vocal reverb and strummed chords. Meanwhile, Health Farm is awash with questing keyboard melodies, its notes speeding into each other like Boards Of Canada with the legato ramped up.

It’s an elegant album of electronic invention and wistful musing, a daydream in a new home, as alive as time.