FWY! frontman Edmund Xavier has been on a dedicated road to recreate the atmospheres of the West Coast interstates and highways through some of the most electronic and ethereal textures imaginable. Having given us the beauty of San Clemente and recently with Any Exit; Xavier contributes some of that creative San Francisco know-how that adds upon the 'I know my rider' adage with the kinetic 70-75 MPH driving release, HWY Trust from Moon Glyph. With the cassette available now, we give you a brief sample of the oncoming traffic ahead.
“Anaheim Nightlife” reminds me of what the surrounding area and town built around Disneyland is like in the evening time. This is that weird zone where you are looking and driving past the Denny's, and other chain fast-food joints, past the barrage of hotels and motels, searching for something that looks exclusive beyond the Walt Disney approved stamp of manufactured worlds and retail. “Nightlife” gives Anaheim an almost alternate existence, and a chance of more excitement, somewhere beyond it's corporate endorsed chasms of commerce, and a hint at something even happier than the so-called happiest place on earth.
“Riverside FWY (4pm)” recalls those long nights on drives home from visiting relatives. The fatigue, the exhaustion from constantly getting in trouble with the cousins, the embarrassment suffered by the parents, the feeling of being grounded eternally, while dad drives sleepily along California State Route 91. The synths almost mirror the overhead and passing utility lights that illuminate the stretches that connect families, friends, in that pensive home-for-the-holidays type of emotion.
“CA BLK Plates” keeps those pensive atmospheres rolling, with a title track that brings to mind the classic black license plates [discontinued after 1963] that adorn only the most classic of California vehicles today. Another way to describe the track would be emotive based music for DMV waiting room depictions, captured in slow motion. Edmund here displays a mastery of the ambient craft, that continually makes both his audio exercises along with many of his Moon Glyph labelmates a curious and alluring source of constant intrigue.
FWY!'s HWY Trust CS is available now from Moon Glyph.
