One Track Mind

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Brooklyn record label Mexican Summer only releases music on limited edition vinyl and via digital download, but they have been gaining notoriety as of late for the high caliber of their curatorial work. With efforts by Kurt Vile, Pearl Harbor, Black Moth Super Rainbow, and Dungen under their belt, the label recently released the Life of Leisure EP by Washed Out.

The alter ego of Georgia born Ernest Greene, Washed Out constructs songs which are blurry around the edges and boast a low production value. Mexican Summer has released music by Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, which is a good starting place for trying to nail down the appropriately sun bleached feeling of Washed Out’s tunes. Sprinkle in a little bit of Neon Indian no-fi and a dash of the wistful heart of The Radio Dept. and Bad Veins and you’re almost there.

“Feel It All Around” is seemingly joined already in progress, a scene interrupted. An uncomplicated drum machine performs a determined zombie march forward over loops of synthesized oohs and glistening, delayed notes. In a bit of organic movement, a slow, fuzzed-out guitar figure sneaks into the groove. Greene’s vocals, heavily processed and ethereal, then take their multi-tracked place in the fold, completing the trippy mix. “Feel It All Around” is an Alka Seltzer tablet without the fizz–a lovingly calculated slow dissolve which eventually has no choice but to disintegrate into a graceful fade out. With this track, Washed Out has recorded a song that you don’t really listen to; more accurately, it is a song that happens to you, an implausibly light yet free standing piece of psych-tinged memory.