ARTIST SPOTLIGHT

pinesoftorrey

Photo credit: courtesy of the artist

Pinesoftorrey is an independent musician, producer, and trumpet player from Phoenix, Arizona, blending indie, alternative, jazz, and experimental music. Combining organic instrumentation with unconventional production, his sound moves between intimate songwriting, atmospheric textures, and instrumental experimentation. Pinesoftorrey embraces a genre-fluid approach rooted in curiosity, individuality, and creative freedom

Why do we love it? I really love the artwork, it reminds me of Robert Rauschenberg's collage for Talking Heads' SPEAKING IN TONGUES, the op-art swirl of Animal Collective's MERRIWEATHER POST PAVILION and The Avalanches' WILDFLOWER. It's short, choppy cuts, with a range of layers and textures in the tracks. While I wish some of the tracks were a little longer, they don't actually need to be, they work because they are short bursts of fun.

TOUCH GRASS might be one of my favorites. In places it feels like the opening of a jazz track - you're kinda waiting for it to find a beat you recognize, but you won't, and there's a little bit of joy in that: every time you think you know where it is going, you have no idea. And then, they just stop.

ERIE DAY: I enjoyed this one. Despite the sparse vocals, it gets to the point. HERE WE GO opens almost horror movie-esque.

If I had a real criticism, it would be the length, but it is a batch of ideas from '22 until now. At track 15 I took a short break. That might say something about my modern-day attention span, or just what I'm used to in terms of album length. 12-15 tracks is about normal, but those are usually 2-5 minutes long. Here most are around 1:30, with a few outliers past 2 minutes.

Are the vocals outstanding and mind-blowing? In some tracks they're fine and in others they aren't, BUT I don't think that is the point. PPL TALK starts very much in a style I enjoy, almost gaming music. What I truly think is that if pinesoftorrey teamed up with someone experimental but with good vocals, it would become something I'd never turn off.

All in all, I love it not because it is good, but because in each track there is an idea, and in each idea there is something fun.

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  • Genre: Alternative

  • From: Phoenix