Awake
Low-lit grooves meet high drama in the swooshing, swirling ambient-ish music of Tycho. The Bay Area producer’s fourth album *Awake* mixes layered guitar strum, electric bass, and electronic wash with beats that are chilled-out but emphatic too. The panoramic title track starts the show in a melancholy mood that soon progresses toward brightness (“Montana”) and, in time, drifting serenity (“Dye”). Gripping melodies and loud-quiet dynamics cribbed from post-rock set up a sense of suspense teased out in deft and diverging instrumentals, each of which seems to tell a story of its own.
On Awake, Scott Hansen, the San Francisco-based visual artist who records colorful techno as Tycho, expands his sound. It's the first Tycho album recorded as a three-piece band, and his previous albums now sound like mere dreams of the luminous world he was trying to create.
San Francisco producer strikes a perfect balance of being memorable and addictive without being cloying or laboured.
If you’re a fan of Tycho, the electronic pop project headed up by erstwhile photographer/graphic designer Scott Hansen, you…
Scott Hansen, the mastermind behind Tycho, was first a graphic designer, and he still balances his visual work with his growing reputation as a musician.