How to Dress Well - Ocean Floor For Everything
David Peter Simon
Sounds like: Holy Other, Balam Acab
Tags: Electronic, ambient, experimental
Tom Krell, aka How To Dress Well, is back with some more lo-fi R&B - this time teasing us with an ambient track off his upcoming sophomore release. It's a piece noted by faint drums and his uniquely soothing high voice. As one SoundClouder put it: "This is some seriously spiritual shit." Indeed.
The track is quietly piercing - sort of like a swan song. While mute for their entire lives, a swan will sing beautifully and mournfully right before they die. You can't find two better words to describe this track: beautiful yet mournful. I guess that's what you can expect to get when you pair psychedelic with ambient, lo-fi with R&B.
The track is actually a very personal one; apparently Tom was supposed to meet a best friend who he hadn't seen in a year, but on his way to meet him the friend passed away. The track's title seems to allude to hitting rock bottom while the album title is pretty self explanatory: TOTAL LOSS. It's a haunting reminder that there's an ocean floor for everything and everyone.
I think Tom Breihan of Stereogum put it perfectly when he quipped that the track basically sounds like it'll fit well during a tearjerking montage in a movie in about three years from now. To me, it conjures images of a Mumblecore trailer focused on two people just staring at each other in a laundromat in New York City in the middle of the night, then cutting to them sitting in Central Park staring at the clouds. What do you hear?
I know you're ready for him, baby, but for now you just have to follow him on Twitter under @HowToDressWell. The album drops this fall on Acephale in North America.
- Google David Peter Simon
Streaming source: http://soundcloud.com/i-d-online-1/how-to-dress-well-ocean-floor
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