Dec 11, 2018

Best of 2018 - flatsound - hummingbird


A place is never just a ‘place’ but the sum of its parts equally; all the people that have passed through it, all the feelings tied to it, all the moments that have unfolded there—everything has history and it seems that Mitch Welling presents us with a chance to draw up some of this history from his EP, totaling seven songs, all of which are recorded in his house on Hummingbird Hill before he moved away. AW


There is a kind of monotony, broken in spurts by thoughtful, almost hesitant guitar chords. From a feeling of stability, there comes the very hint of change, in pitch and volume, in the undertone of static;  a kind of movement as if someone or something is going somewhere, almost mechanical and repetitive in nature. There is an abrupt shutting sound, leaving the track almost incomplete with garbled static and shuffling.


i trust that everything that happened to us 
happened so we'd improve 
everything is proof 
everything you do 

but you've got the softest arms i have ever known 
the softest arms that i could hold 
or that could hold me 

travel far away 
where the neighbors talk 
and i'll go away 
to an adjacent park 
i want to go to doose's market 
or anywhere there's a doose's 

because even the softest arms 
can't bear to hold 
such a fragile frame 
such a broken soul 
i've got a broken soul 


It should be obvious at this point that Flatsound’s music requires patience and a gut for indulgent quietness. But something I still keep forgetting is that listening to his extended plays is about as difficult as any of his hour long monstrosities. Everything here, from the breathy, whispering vocals, the anti-eventful song-writing, to the purposefully minimalistic and vague instrumentation, you will find either excruciating or absolutely astonishing.


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