Musical Mondays - Dive (2011) by Tycho

It is somehow that time once again. Time for me to listen to some friendly tunes and tell you why I love them. It’s Musical Monday! And this fortnight features a musician I hold close to my heart because his music inspires such nostalgia for those snowy peaks I showed you one Thursday a few weeks ago. Thanks to the close friend whose family I travelled to Italy with, this music has become the soundtrack to snow, skiing, and a sun-drenched rented apartment. And that musician is American composer and record producer Scott Hansen, professionally known as Tycho.

His sound is very much what has come to be known as ‘lo-fi’, ‘chillwave’ or ‘ambient’ (so the perfect tunes to unwind to) combining electronic synths, instrumentation, and sound clips. Initially a solo artist, Hansen recruited additional members following his 2006 debut album Past is Prologue, bringing live guitars, drums, bass, vocals, and percussion into the mix for 2011’s Dive, the album I am showcasing today.

What really stands out for me with this album is the complex layers of sound which don’t weigh down such lightweight tracks, and how that sound uniquely illustrates each song’s title. Take ‘A Walk’, for example: the brightly metallic synth reverb, the percussive yet softened drumbeats, the warm background guitar/bass chords, and the shaken percussion, all these elements combine to make you feel you are on a sunny Spring walk just after the rain. ‘Coastal Brake’ uses gentle acoustic guitar strings, those same bright synth reverbs and even some sound samples of the tide on a beach to evoke that coastal feeling. And one of my favourites, 'Ascension’, is so gentle and airy with longer electronic notes and reverb, breathy vocal sounds, and that beautiful acoustic guitar that you almost feel yourself becoming weightless with a newfound sense of tranquillity.

Most of the tracks are roughly between 4 and 8 minutes long meaning you can embrace the complexity and ride that calm for longer. However, two tracks (‘Melanine’ and ‘Epigram’) are just under 3 minutes long, but they do try to make the most of that time. ‘Melanine’ feels like an ode to sunshine with bright higher-pitched synth notes and a simple acoustic guitar track, while ‘Epigram’ is populated with a mixture of metallic, percussive, and glassy notes which fit the title reasonably well as a short and witty statement.

This is, altogether, an album to get lost in, both mentally and aurally, as you allow your mind to wander and to pick out the individual elements of each track, from the subtle shifts in synth tone, from liquid to metallic, bright to hollow (but always with a touch of reverb) to the transition between electric and acoustic guitar which always sits so comfortably in the background. It’s like getting lost in a familiar place, enjoying the novelty and familiarity which present themselves in turn. So come and come and take a Dive in Tycho (sorry, I couldn’t resist).

Info taken from Tycho's Wikipedia page: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tycho_(musician)

FULL ALBUM: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lkCgIijL5sMC8ks-r6oAlOJXDZMt8mUQI