…Only a few months ago, Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith released GUSH, a vocal synth set packed with perky, romantic, danceable club cuts, with an undercurrent of social commentary. On Thoughts on the Future, the artist returns to the instrumental realm, offering three extended ambient-electronic meditations. The first single, “I Miss the Way You Swim,” is rife with melancholy, easing the way into the new year. Bubbling at the center, the nearly ten-minute piece blossoms into a gorgeous glockenspiel suite. As the orchestral elements enter, one takes a breath and whispers, “Maybe the new year won’t be so bad after all.”
The title track is peaceful and melodic, with percussive textures increasing in density, relaying a feeling of forward movement. Wordless voice…
Tag Archive: Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
GUSH refers to a rapid, plentiful flow and enthusiastic affection. Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s new soundscapes exhibit both.
On the album’s namesake track, Smith, her spectral voice undulating, verbalises this display by building up to the mantra: “I like how you think / I like the way you see things”.
GUSH is Smith shaping her abstruse and idiosyncratic electronic textures to explore her admiration for objects often deemed innocuous and trivial. Funnelling meaning into those things through her wondrous aural world, that sentiment feels sincere, empowering, and purposeful.
As always, ordinary and metaphysical sounds are awash, contorting in multiple directions and occasionally falling into sublime cacophonies.