Influences
Two that are way more obvious here than in my other songs (perhaps to its detriment, perhaps not):
Kraftwerk, “Mitternacht”
Global Communication, “14:31”
Story
Named for Shola Aleje and Lauren Laverne, a BBC 6 Music producer and show host, respectively, it’s in hono(u)r of when they had me on Desert Island Disco in August 2020 to offer banging tunes to the Great British public. Title-wise, it’s either some geologic formation or the face they make when a song is rockin’. I don’t have to choose.
The drum that comes in slowly separates over the course of the song, and one side is slowly getting bitcrushed. It’s also got a root note and a second above it, and different stereo settings/systems/contexts emphasize one note over the other. So this song can sound pretty different from listen to listen, in a Laurel/Yanny sort of way.
The bass is constantly panning out and in, like a < > pattern, but I don’t know if that’s audible. It’s got some good chords, and you can ambient to it.
The beeps that show up at the end are a Morse code message to Shola and Lauren:
From Seattle with love
28/8/20
BBC 6 Music forever
This is how it looks as a bunch of programmed notes:
Some press about it
“The last track, “The Rock Face of Sholauren,” features eerie, sepulchral waves of streaming sound, and then segues to unaccompanied plonking taps, followed by re-emerging surges of glowing and groaning textures.” – Randall Radic, in a review that might have left the internet (many years ago, I used “sepulchral” in some lyrics, and I was happy to receive that word back)
“The perfect blend of subtle and haunting.” – Now Hear This
The next album: Made By Thawing Ice
restlessmosaic.com 