AMA — Pearl / Grey

Being a cassingle, as they used to be known, this ten minute cassette takes less time to listen to than it does to try to discover who’s behind the release: All a search engine yields is that it’s brought to you by Lighten Up Sounds from the banks of the Mississippi that regularly produces short runs of new and diverse experimental music from the electro-acoustics of Andreas Brandal to the outsider cabaret of Sam Gas Can.

AMA, however, is centred on a meandering folk guitar. ‘Pearl’ opens up in a suitably lazy fashion with light Spanish strumming accompanied by nothing but a subtle delay that embellishes the odd scrape of fingertips on the strings. Soon a layer of light distortion creeps in, giving the lonely acoustic guitar a more ominous, blackened feel that fuses with richer, more exotic pluckery. However, these qualities are more clearly served by the version of ‘Pearl’ available on the label’s downloadable sampler than on this cassette that adds its own layer of crumbly ambience to the proceedings.

On the other side, ‘Grey’ lives up to its name as an otherwise jaunty, Neil Young-like steel string number has its sparse elements melded together by a foggy reverb. The result is a kind of psychedelic guitar drone attempting to conceal the evidence of song made by indecipherable caterwauling vocals as effects take it away from the hippy campfire into the ether.