What does the title of Outra-G‘s Light Drops refer to? Is the “drops” a verb, and the title intended to suggest a just-pre-evening mode? Does the phrase have poetic aspirations, implying a kind of visual precipitation? Even money should be placed on “drops” coming from its lounge/hip-hop meaning: the audio loop as mood-inducer; the “light” thus qualifies it by actively pushing that mood to the background. There’s much to recommend this collection, the slow-pulse beat of “Rayleigh Scattering,” the plucked-wire accents on the rhythm-box-driven “Diving Bells.”
The keeper is arguably a track titled “Frames,” which mixes what appear to be field recordings of rain with lush digital effects in a manner that lets each mirror the other. And amidst it all, a piano finds itself nearly buried in cavernous echo (MP3). The processing of the piano is especially accomplished, how even as those Satie-esque notes push toward something melodic, the ear is attracted not to the notes but to their reverb-burnished tone.
Get the full set of eight tracks at softphase.org. More on Outra-G, aka Albert Guirao, who’s based in Barcelona, Spain, at myspace.com/outrag and outragerecords.com.
Drops of light… Very much like the feeling when listening to the music. But yes, as light drops makes sense too.