Perils

This is a collaboration between drone/dream-pop extraordinaire Benoît Pioulard (aka Thomas Meluch) and ambient maestro Kyle Bobby Dunn—a match made in heaven. Dunn's warm drones and Meluch's fractured, grainy textures intertwine perfectly, and immaculate, minimal songs emerge irregularly from the mist. Meluch has spent 2015 cranking out tons of stunning ambient-drone, but here he steps partway back to the hazy pop he was making before he released his album Sonnet (an album I can't recommend highly enough). There are practically no beats here, and the tracks can be categorized more-or-less as songs or drones. The sound is darker than usual for both artists, and a sense of subdued, hazy drama pervades the whole record. It's magnificent—perfect music for late nights or rainy days. Wow. Wow. I gave up trying to list favorites. No FCCs detected.

1. (5:06)—Drone. Intense, slow to enter, with high metallic tones.
2. (2:43)—Song. Minimal, eerie, like an underwater blues lament. Windy, languid, rippling electric guitar.
3. (6:12)—Drone. Moody, dark. Rain sounds? Peaceful coda.
4. (4:00)—Song. A barely perceptible beat, strummed acoustic guitar. Pastoral, pretty, balancing between melancholy and levity.
5. (2:05)—Drone. Clear, soft, watery.
6. (4:06)—Drone. Warped chimes give way to a ghostly soup of tones. Fades into the next track.
7. (4:03)—Song. Two droning chords that build. Meluch's layered crooning makes me think of R&B, but only in the most oblique way.
8. (3:07)—Song. Slow strummed electric guitar. Soothing.
9. (5:27)—Song/drone. Epic, with layered vocals. Like a more spaced-out track from Sonnet.
10. (4:53)—Drone. Cloudy, cavernous, with soft, dissipating piano.