(Photo courtesy of The Syndicate. “City Livin’ blends genres like lo-fi, hip-hop and electronic to create a dreamlike, nostalgic soundscape.”)
Aaron Preziosi
Connector Editor
Released just last week on Oct. 24, “City Livin’” is San Francisco-based “jazz-infused” electronic duo Late Aster’s debut LP. Comprised of classically-trained musicians Aaron Messing and Anni Hochhalter, Late Aster manages to capture a lo-fi sound that is not only authentic but nearly enthralling. Every song has an omnipresent “fuzz” thanks to the duo’s use of a TASCAM Portastudio 414 MKII, a 4-track cassette recorder from the late 90s. In other releases, such an effect may easily come off as overdone or canned, but Late Aster’s use of real hardware gives it a warm, authentic sound that serves to bolster the distinctive tones of brass instruments used heavily throughout the LP.
As expected for an electronic LP, the brass is accompanied by various synths and distortions, which serve each other as wonderful contrasting elements for listeners through every song. The Syndicate describes “City Livin’” as “a nod to lo-fi ambient and hip-hop,” and the influence is very apparent, particularly in “Folsom,” the second track. It is composed primarily of an electronic beat: snare, hi-hat, and bass; accompanied by almost-ethereal sounding vocals that seem to drift between the ears. It lends a very peculiar sound to not just “Folsom,” but many of the other tracks that employ the same techniques. It invokes feelings of nostalgia; of places the listener knows and recognizes from some past they may or may not have actually lived.
According to The Syndicate, Late Aster decided on the title “City Livin’” after creating the track of the same name. “The song almost reads as numb. It whizzes past you and feels pretty good but is strangely featureless, almost opaque. It’s a backhanded reflection of that idea: plenty of shiny objects from food, to people, to art, to parks in the city to distract you from what is essentially the blandness of the human experience—birth, life, and death as a single unit of a massive unknowable universe,” with that description in mind, it is easy to derive Late Aster’s intent when listening to the album’s title track. It is indeed repetitive and numb, and at times hard to listen to. It is almost a “barrier to entry” to the rest of the experimental, brilliant tracks on “City Livin’.” Listeners should pay the associated costs, as there are many hidden gems to be heard. Some highlights are “Folsom,” “Yellow Orange Blue,” “Ctrl-F Discipline,” and “The Coda.” They exemplify all of what makes “City Livin’” so unique; the filtered and distorted yet-recognizable brass, the synth, soft and muffled yet impactful percussion, and vocals that sound mysterious and otherworldly, yet distinctly human and certainly relaxing.
Fans of many genres have something to look forward to in “City Livin’.” Be it electronic, experimental, hip-hop, or lo-fi ambient; many genres are married together seamlessly in the album, and it has a “distinct personality” indeed, as said by The Syndicate. It may be streamed via The Syndicate’s own website, Spotify, or Bandcamp.
Grade: B
