2023-04-28 18:22:48
Hand on heart: this little review of Pioneer serves primarily to point out that Simon Linsteadt with Mud Season has released a really nice folk and singer-songwriter gem.
The impressions of almost 13 minutes of purely instrumental, room-wallpapering music are simply put into words more quickly than it would be possible to describe the 19 (often very inconspicuous) songs on Linsteadt’s sixth studio album.
Especially the addendum Pioneer with all the love then also has less to discover, is grasped faster in substance (and actually even stylistically), and as a felt finger exercise soundtrack is laid out rather casually and incidentally splashing in the background: the simple melodies have something non-binding, remain in an unspectacular way don’t really hang, but work in an atmospherically engaging way for melancholic, musing afternoons.
This is especially true for Lisa’s House and (that adds an additional 80s feeling with a bit of bass) Lungs, in which an electric piano takes the reflective lead, swaying through subtle ambient textures to create an ethereal nostalgia: the aesthetic dominates the songwriting, built on very minimalistic (and strictly speaking unoriginal) motifs. In terms of stylistic uniformity, this still seems coherent, even attractive in an almost meditative way – admittedly always more promising than Linsteads can deliver in this compact framework. One would like to explore this world in more detail.
However, the coherence is given despite a spectrum that is fanned out over the course. In the title track, the keyboard even jingles between Doogie Howser and an ethno-New Age, first meanders and then abruptly stops. The EP is sketchy anyway – but here it is generally too aimless and fragmentary. Pure plucks the guitar in a peacefully flowing synth cloud of the deeply pleasurable downward spiral before Kenosis as a rattling, clicking Indietronic meditation whether his trappy hi-hat is unnecessarily out of the ordinary.
Nevertheless: convincing in the right mood Pioneer as a nice appendix, as a first step in a new direction, which picks up the core, but does not yet find the epiphany. Regardless, a benevolent upgrade between points shouldn’t hurt anyone. And be it secretly just to go back to the main work Mud Seasons to point out.
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