Kelz - 5am & I Can't Sleep - COMPACT DISCS [CD]

2021 . Transcontinental, experimental duo Smoke Bellow have been at it since 2012, relocating from Australia to Baltimore, MD and back again and then back again (now firmly settled in Baltimore). They eventually recruited one of their favorite drummers and dear friend, Emmanuel Nicolaidis. With Open for Business, the three members set out to create a set of songs more immediate and bare than previous outings. Half of the songs were written in a room together and the second half via email (for obvious reasons). At the time they were listening to a lot of post punk and were struck with the partnership of drums and bass as propulsive instruments. The trio started writing songs around that idea - with the rhythm as a brace to hang their decorations.

Kelz's debut '5 AM and I Can't Sleep' delivers us a frothy dream-pop introduction to the mind of Vietnamese-American producer and multi-instrumentalist Kelly Truong. Written and recorded in her Orange County, California home, these songs tell a nostalgic yet hopeful story following loss. For kelz, carefully looping beats, tinkering with synthetic waveforms, and interweaving guitar picking serves as a meditation-a mode of processing emotions and the inevitable passing of time. Front and center are her airy vocals, recorded in a whisper so as to not wake people in the other room late at night. Each song folds in on itself like a wave's undertow, reorienting infectious melodies from tracks previous. When asked about the album, Kelz reflects on the process as Inchfeeling like running towards somethingInch but not knowing what it is. Escape with kelz on a long night drive with this effervescent electro-pop debut.

Love and faith, mortality and eternity are the abiding themes of these three important and beautifully shimmering works by one of the 20th century' most innovative composers. Les offrandes oubliees, Messiaen' first published orchestral work, is a symphony.