Photoyn Goss

Rick Altieri has counted himself as one half of lo-fi psych-gaze duo Blue Ocean, the drummer of buzzy Bay Area lucid dream alt-rockers Aluminum as well as a member of Aluminum alum Chris Natividad’s noise rock offshoot Blue Zero, but above me is all him on his own. Having just released his debut album, Soften The Blows, the multi-instrumentalist has created an amorphous listen which strikes a harmony between guitar-driven noise-pop and sample-based electronica undercurrents.

This is to say that on his own accord, we’re hearing him stepping into his own with a new way forward in spite of its album bio underselling everything as not setting out to reinvent any particular sound. Denying the usual frequencies of feedback-heavy guitar rock (though recent single “Monolith” lives up to its titular wall scale…) above me’s convergence between shoegaze and experimental ambient textures best exemplifies itself on highlight “French Candle”. Here, the electricity gleams in transcendental waves as much as it sparks a hot white hot refraction when he reaches for the flame. The energy, created in its own vacuum, enters our world as a new type of light.

above me’s Soften The Blows is available now on Dandy Boy Records.