Yes yes, I am aware that Olive Music has been on a *bit* of a cassette binge recently, and I do apologize. You will hear more about cassettes in the following weeks, but we will not become a cassette-only review site. We just want to go outside the boundaries of LPs, CDs and digital music, and review an album regardless of its format. Thus bringing us to a cassette of true beauty, Softlight Reveries' self-titled debut.
Softlight Reveries is one of the many monikers of Cloud Valley label-founder, Scott Johnson, who you may recognize as Scott Cloud, Thoughts On Air, or Hunting Rituals. Softlight Reveries is of a different breed than Johnson's other projects. Even though this was released in late-December of 2009, it is completely devoid of sounding recent and this is because of the fidelity of the recording itself. It may be safe to say that this is "badly recorded," but do you think that the production was really labored over if cassette was the format of choice? The low fidelity just contributes to the vintage aura of this release. Much in the way of Xiphiidae's releases, this feels like an archival release; something that could've been recorded in the 60s or 70s onto a cheap tape recorder.
Once again, the fidelity accompanies the music almost perfectly. From what I can decipher, Softlight Reveries is composed entirely with guitar. Guitar loops fade over one another, creating a minimal, organic symphony of ambience and fades. It's about as simple as that, and with its length of a mere 20 minutes, I wish there was a little more to listen to. Another 10 minutes would've been perfect. However, judging the music we're provided with, I have to give Softlight Reveries very, very high marks.
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