Let's Pretend by Faex Optim

Wes McDonald’s Faex Optim project presents his third release on Carpe Sonum, and as such continues true to form, a dazzling display for the senses that feels like it encapsulates the last 25 years of electronica with the greatest of ease. In fact, the sounds that spin like candy-colored confetti out of your speakers seem quaint, nostalgic, even anachronistic in spots. But that’s the secret to their charm. Full of glimpses of eras-past both stylistically and aesthetically, fired up by the artist’s desire to conjure soundwaves whose layered elements persist only in dreams, there is a surety of sonic portraiture here that evokes the finer reveries of 90s stalwarts Boards of Canada, Plaid, Aus, Bitcrush, Lights Out Asia, et al. McDonald’s brand of hypnagogic electro-pop doesn’t need anything like arch vocals or other obvious signifiers to enable his sublime aural movements, other than cinematic samples brilliantly placed at strategic points (check “Sister” or “The Alchemist” for proof) to ignite the listener’s memory banks. Taken as a whole, the phonetically coiffed Faex Optim moniker, despite its Autechre-esque letter-jumble, speaks to verdant childhood vistas and the innocence of bygone eras when simple adventures, experiences, and longings were enough to lose oneself in. And McDonald’s sweetly bouncing rhythms, chiming synthetic arias, and melancholic will-o'-the-wisps offer much in the way of luxurious ear-food for the soul.

Post-electronic music. Currently residing in the grey drizzle of Scotland.

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