While promoting Jonti Danilewitz’s debut album Twirligig at the end of 2011, Stones Throw made available a compilation of the artist’s older material called Sine & Moon Mix. The South African-born Australian resident’s releases were so well received he decided to stretch the effort into a full-length album, including extras and new mixes, which is now available as a free download. Producer and multi-instrumentalist Jonti, who has worked in the past with artists such as Santigold and Mark Ronson, acts as jack of all trades, creating intricate, genre-bending tracks.
Sine & Moon, originally recorded on a 4-track machine, is a unique album that feels anything but lo-fi. Influenced by a vast array of musicians- Animal Collective, The Beach Boys, The Beastie Boys, and Beck- Jonti has created an album, littered with electronics and harmonic coos, that spans genres. The album begins with “Saturday Night Songs”, a ukulele ballad with Spanish-style finger picking and Jonti’s wavering vocals. The premiere song bumps rather awkwardly into the next track, the beat driven hip-hop number “Red on Green” featuring Jonwayne. Although there are obvious hip-hop influences elsewhere on the album, there are no other tracks quite like “Red on Green”, making it feel slightly out of place.
Tracks like “Nighshift in Blue (Alternate Version)” and “Confused Birds” are dreamy, psychedelic inspired numbers with soft harmonies and organ combined with Jon Brion-esque electronics. The ukulele driven “By This Shore”, with its electric guitar and polyphonic “ooh”-ing, is a standout track that has Jonti “wondering what she’s doing now/ Cause there’s no other way that we can live by this shore.” “Flesh of Morning” combines rhythms reminiscent of 80’s R&B and subtle handclaps, making it a song worth dancing to. Bonus track “Vendas Newly Won Dream” employs more of those blips and bleeps over repetitive percussion and sound samples.
Sine & Moon is a 15-track album that lasts only 36 minutes, with very few of the tracks lasting longer than 180 seconds. The mix of genres and analog instrumentation layered among electronic samples is surprisingly accessible but some tracks don’t seem to go anywhere and the album could have used some more structure. However, considering Sine & Moon was never actually intended to be a full-length record, it is a cohesive and vibrant work that’s worth a listen.
