Well, looky looky.....
Opaker, Ramon Galvan's latest transmission, arrives like a séance. The
collection thrives on fracture: conducted through dismantled telephone
mechanisms, culled from remote studio jams during 2020, written in
isolation. The songs channel the busted electronics of Wolf Eyes, the
skeletal pulse of early hip hop, Suicide’s proto-synth nihilism, and the
abyssal grandeur of late Scott Walker.
The album is framed by two spectral bookends: Torchy Torch, whimsical pastoralia that conceals a warning beneath its sing-song surface, and Lip Service, a slow-motion entombment in amber in which a groaning Dulcitone duets with violins bowed not with horsehair but by a rosined drumstick—an act of deliberate fallibility, a refusal of polish.
Between these, the curve balls arrive thick and fast, with the BBC Radiophonic styled vinyl scratching pastiche of 'Cowboy Cola' giving way to the late night espionage gambit needle drop of 'Further Out'. The serenity offered by the celebratory 'When Jupiter Arrives' is short lived, crushed by the pummeling electronic based 'Mezzanine State' creating negative space to describe an interstitial nether plane of existence. This is further explored on 'The Pollen Age' where organic arpeggios and krautrock beats blur into clouds of choking hallucinogenic spores. 'Bullet' delivers a minimal drum machine and synth styled message of conflict. The considered sound design and expressive jazz-folk guitar of 'Ripple Tank' accompanies lyrics that hover on the edge of disclosure, refusing catharsis. The further you listen the more Opaque things become. Penultimately, 'Dancing Slow' finally offers a small clue: God is watching and listening, but He is a bit nervous to return.
Written and Recorded by Ramon Galvan and Nic da Silva
Mixed and Mastered by Simon Ratcliffe at Sound and Motion, Cape Town
Cover Design by Jesse Breytenbach
Art Direction by Ramon Galvan
The album is framed by two spectral bookends: Torchy Torch, whimsical pastoralia that conceals a warning beneath its sing-song surface, and Lip Service, a slow-motion entombment in amber in which a groaning Dulcitone duets with violins bowed not with horsehair but by a rosined drumstick—an act of deliberate fallibility, a refusal of polish.
Between these, the curve balls arrive thick and fast, with the BBC Radiophonic styled vinyl scratching pastiche of 'Cowboy Cola' giving way to the late night espionage gambit needle drop of 'Further Out'. The serenity offered by the celebratory 'When Jupiter Arrives' is short lived, crushed by the pummeling electronic based 'Mezzanine State' creating negative space to describe an interstitial nether plane of existence. This is further explored on 'The Pollen Age' where organic arpeggios and krautrock beats blur into clouds of choking hallucinogenic spores. 'Bullet' delivers a minimal drum machine and synth styled message of conflict. The considered sound design and expressive jazz-folk guitar of 'Ripple Tank' accompanies lyrics that hover on the edge of disclosure, refusing catharsis. The further you listen the more Opaque things become. Penultimately, 'Dancing Slow' finally offers a small clue: God is watching and listening, but He is a bit nervous to return.
Written and Recorded by Ramon Galvan and Nic da Silva
Mixed and Mastered by Simon Ratcliffe at Sound and Motion, Cape Town
Cover Design by Jesse Breytenbach
Art Direction by Ramon Galvan
