Golden Brown

Golden Brown returns this month with his most serene outing yet. There’s always been a kosmiche cool to Stefan Beck’s (Prairiewolf) work, but as he dips into the deep on Kindness, he strips away the rhythm for a pure sound bath of bliss that wraps the mind like a warm, wet towel. In fact, water is the word on Kindness. The album’s aqueous themes prevail — cool, calm, and rippled with light that bends through the prismatic peace of the record’s core. Taking a break from his sterling run at Inner Islands, this time Beck pops up on the consistently blissful roster at Aural Canyon.

The record finds Stefan in his usual garden, surrounded by guitar, lap steel, keys, and this time, kalimaba. The latter adds a nice dripping stalactite quality to the album. Most importantly here are the steel and keys, which play upon one another like water lapping at the sand. The record is as sublime as Golden Brown have ever sounded, stripping away some of the ambient country curls for a full on dip into the New Age pool. The shift feels good on ‘em, an embrace of the crystalline coating of the soul. However you’d like to categorize it, the record is a much needed reset. It’s the kind of album that blocks out the external impulses, shuts down the stimuli and lets that inner glow expand until it breaks the skin. I’m not one to judge your life, but chances are, you probably need this about now.

Support the artist. Buy it HERE.