Above: Photo courtesy of WMD.
By Josh Hughes
Both artists performing at the upcoming Coffeehouse show find common ground in the way they paint vivid imagery through their instrumental soundscapes. WMD and HimeHime will be playing a show from from 7 to 9 p.m. on Wednesday, October 12 at the Underground Coffeehouse, showcasing a vibrant combination of live and electronic elements for their performance.
Hailing from Seattle, WMD is the electronic solo project of Michael Erickson, who is just coming off of the June release of his sophomore album Limerence. His music taps into a blend of chillwave, downtempo, and even chiptune (video game music). Chiptune, similar to vaporwave, delves into retro sounds from video games and re-appropriates their context. As daunting as that can sound, WMD lands somewhere between Tycho, Washed Out, and Baths in his luscious, melodic production.
Without any vocal accompaniment, Erickson lets his electronic production and guitar playing carry the weight of creating meaningful pieces of music. The note that comes with his album says “This album is about hiking to a hidden lake in the rain /This album is about quick visits to the countryside in the summer / This album is about sitting on your porch at 8 p.m. watching the sun set / This album is about everything we did / This album is about her.”
There is a consistent feeling of melancholia that the whole album soaks in without sounding sappy or overly sentimental. Regardless of Erickson’s thematic intentions, Limerence provides an excellent soundtrack for both casual listening and more intently hearing the subtleties in his music.
Opener HimeHime, also coming from Seattle, similarly uses instrumental flourishes to express his largely electronic music. While Mackenzie Simon’s music project utilizes lead vocals on some tracks, his most recent release, Cancer, also lets the music flesh out some of his complex ideas. He self describes the album as “(dealing) with the emotional struggle and disconnect of losing loved family members to cancer. The album is a deep introspective look into one’s relationships to dying loved family members, contemplation of the human condition, and a celebration of life.” It’s a heavy task for a record to be given, and much of his lyrical content in the few songs he sings on paints a good portrait of the disconnect he’s talking about. However, some of Simon’s best music comes out when he lets his music do the speaking, letting seemingly disparate live and electronic sounds intermingle into strangely cohesive tracks.
While both artists toy with the quiet and ambient, they each carve out a distinct sonic palette that makes them greater than the sum of their parts. The vocal sampling on WMD’s “Garden Gate” is pure bliss and the guitar leading into the synth odyssey on HimeHime’s “Ambrosia” sounds unlike anything in contemporary mainstream electronic. Be sure not to miss out on seeing both of them live this upcoming Wednesday at the Underground Coffeehouse!
Below: Photo courtesy of HimeHime.
