Over the past few years, we've seen members of Ponytail branch out to other musical outlets. Dustin Wong's solo career really picked up steam in 2010, Jeremy Hyman went off to drum for Boredoms, and this year we've seen the rise of Ken Seeno's solo effort.
Seeno's first collection of recordings came in the form of Open Window, a cassette that is out now on WTR CLR. Open Window finds him exploring vastly different and more cavernous avenues than his other endeavors. Ken fills these empty spaces with simple and and hypnotic beats, experimental melodies, and entrancing synths fit for the cosmos.
“Spirit of 77” comes later on in Ken Seeno's new tape, likely at a time when you've stepped through the open window and are amongst the clouds. Not to say that the entire cassette doesn't make you feel as if you've been lifted into the stratosphere, because it really does. But, while other melodies feel more personal and enclosed, “Spirit of '77” delivers the feeling of endless possibilities and truly open skies.
More often than not, album titles have little to do with the actual sounds and frequencies that emanate from the grooves of the record or tape that it labels. However Ken Seeno's newer album, Invisible Surfer On An Invisible Wave, is not one of those occurrences. The album drifts and dashes through salt water and curling waves that could only exist in some sort of unobtainable fantasy land.
Ken's newer release on NNA Tapes feels innately spiritual, the kind of music that throws you deep into a daze, but never once allowing you to take your mind off the sounds you're hearing. This particular release does an excellent job in capturing complex and intimate ideas using incredibly simple synths and melodies that cascade and scatter like skipping several rocks across a lake at the same time.
