Paracosm
The music recorded by Ernest Greene as Washed Out has been nothing if not dreamy, and on his second full-length, Paracosm, he takes the dreamlike, otherworldly atmospheres of his music a huge leap further. The title refers to a phenomenon in which people create detailed imaginary worlds, and the idea of escaping is all over Paracosm’s music and lyrics. Paracosm finds Greene reaching beyond the computers and synths that filled Washed Out’s previous recordings, expanding his sonic palette to include over 50 different instruments, the most significant of which turned out to be old keyboards like the Mellotron, Chamberlin, Novatron, and Optigan. “I’ve grown as a songwriter to the point where I want to have more involved arrangements, and that’s really hard to do with sampling,” says Greene. “These machines were kind of a happy medium: The sounds have a very worn, distressed quality about them, much like an old sample. But they also offer much more flexibility because they’re playable.” Following two years on the road in support of the critically-acclaimed Within And Without, and the lauded Life Of Leisure EP (which can still be heard during “Portlandia’s” opening credits), he and his wife, Blair (who plays in the Washed Out live band), relocated from the big-city hubbub of Atlanta to a house outside Athens, where Greene could shut out the real world in favor of an alternate universe of his own making. Listeners will be immediately struck by Paracosm’s seamless melding of organic and synthetic sounds, and its lighter tone. Greene says: “I knew from the beginning I wanted this record to be optimistic, very much a daytime-sounding album. I think the last record felt more nocturnal in some ways. This one I just imagined being outside, surrounded by a beautiful, natural environment.” With its gorgeous execution and uplifting attitude, Paracosm is primed to be this year’s summer record. And it promises to do what its name suggests: take listeners to a better world. Paracosm was recorded at in Atlanta with Ben H. Allen (Animal Collective, Deerhunter, Gnarls Barkley, Washed Out – Within and Without) at Maze Studios.
Four years after “Feel It All Around” defined chillwave, Paracosm presents Ernest Greene as a man without a movement, someone whose music can no longer be used to project opinions about a larger trend. Produced again by Ben H. Allen, the album's instrumentation sloshes around in lush, warm reverb and palpable bass frequencies.
Shortly after his first release as Washed Out, Ernest Greene became something of a poster child for chillwave, or even the culture of urban millennials in general—a distinction that became inevitable when one of his songs was used to soundtrack the opening credits of Portlandia. However, as an emissary of a culture…
Earnest Greene's tropically-tinged fourth album purports to be about passion, but lacks the emotional intensity that that billing suggests
Ernest Green's second album as Washed Out is a fantastical, playful creation rife with romanticism and imagination.
Ever since his 2009 EP Life of Leisure, Washed Out’s Ernest Greene has been shrouding listeners in dreamy, reverb-drenched…
A paracosm is a psychological term for a spectacularly detailed imaginary world, think Tolkien’s Middle Earth or Westeros in George RR Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire book series. This, the second record record from Georgia-based producer Ernest Greene under the Washed Out banner, is his attempt to create the aural equivalent, but instead of dwarves and elves think lazy beats, languid vocals and samples which sound culled from some heavenly all night summer party.
Buried amongst a clamour of too-cool-for-school hypnagogic popstrels Within and Without was a snug, amiable pleasure; the kind of record that greeted listeners with a beaming smile before dousing them in rich sonic textures and gooey melodies.
Clash reviews 'Paracosm', the second studio album from Ernest Greene under his Washed Out moniker...
Paracosm explores the furthest reaches of what bedroom music can accomplish without abandoning it for something totally unfamiliar.
Washed Out "Paracosm" Review. Northern Transmissions reviews the upcoming album from Washed Out, out 8/13 on Sub Pop. Washed Out starts tour in August
Chillwave was briefly the hippest genre around. That didn't last, but its poster boy seems to have staying power, writes <strong>Alexis Petridis</strong>