Pacific Northwest label Off Tempo recently released a new album, Glossy Recall, from Anacortes based band Hungry Cloud Darkening, and we’re bringing you the whole thing in all its glory for your streaming pleasure. The band includes Nicholas Wilbur, Paul Benson, and Allyson Foster, members of Mount Eerie’s touring band, and the record was recorded at The Unknown, a studio shared by several members of Anacortes, Washington’s music community, including Phil Elverum.
While fans of understated, drifting pop akin to Mount Eerie will find much to like about Hungry Cloud Darkening, the band’s sound stands alone. Mixing the trebly bass style of Angelo Badalamenti (Twin Peaks soundtrack) with the dreamy, misty vocals of Allyson Foster and mellow, deliberate drums, Hungry Cloud Darkening melds sounds of the 80s with modern indie pop. Subtle synthesizers and brass offer wavering and beautiful subtleties as the songs float by easily. And as downtempo as the songs are, you’ll still find yourself tapping your foot to its more pop-oriented moments like the brief “Time To.”
Glossy Recall isn’t so much a soundtrack for sleep as it is an aural interpretation of sleep itself. Here, an introspective state of mind is woven by these songs. As you listen, you are becoming sleep; dreams move into reality. The atoms that comprise you are blending into the dampness of a morning fog. Where do we end and the molecules of air around us begin? Glossy Recall is a doorway to another level of consciousness. Sink in.