If you keep your ears open in the underground scene long enough, you will eventually come across an obscure artist who has essentially been a legend within the scene for a long time, but you hadn’t really been familiar with their game until recently. Some artists such as The Cleaners From Venus, Linda Perhacs, and Linda Smith become cult favorites, and some manage to slide through with what seems like very little mention on a larger scale. Los Angeles’ resident psychedelic singer-songwriter Azalia Snail has been making music since the 90s with her ever-morphing brand of psychedelic music and has been a staple of the DIY/indie scene for years. She has even earned the name “queen of lo-fi” during that time. She started off making psychedelic rock and soon slid into making something close to psychedelic synthpop (or, if you prefer the more fitting genre name, cosmic pop).
The best way to describe Azalia Snail’s music is that she always keeps one eye towards the cosmos and the other eye here on Earth. Sometimes, even approached in a very light-hearted way. (Otherwise, she wouldn’t have a cutely twee song about “Burnt Cookies”.) Musically, it may as well be an observation of Earth from above. Sometimes, Azalia’s projects wind up being instrumental soundtracks. That’s where projects like Gentle Mental, an album released exclusively by Cloud Recordings, a label manned by “a member of Olivia Tremor Control”, come into play.
Whether using a keyboard, an omnichord, or whatever instrument she gets her hands on, Snail doesn’t fail to carry you through the colorful throes of space for a good half-hour, but Gentle Mental feels more like music made by someone forced to compose on the ground. Specifically, a ground that grows ever shaky with time. The opening track “Defense Duty” mixes surf rock guitars with the buzzy, lo-fi bass of the keyboards. Omnichords still sparkle underneath like stars that dare make themselves present, but there is a seriousness that presents itself in the darkness between the surf guitar. Said dark space presents itself in the swirl of “No Tango”’s synths that cascade over pulsating synth bass. And though it wouldn’t be obvious outside of the song titles (“Don’t Fuck With Us”, “There Will Be Beauty”, “Stay Blue”), the album feels written in response to an outer world that is slowly in shambles, due to America’s political position. The only “bio” to be found on the label’s Bandcamp is “#voteblue”.
Thankfully, seeming trepidation is not the towering emotion being displayed here. The heavenly “Swift Drift” is one shining example of such. The song boasts finger scratches and plinks of the omnichord and keyboard playing, boasts a one-note choir, more sparkling notes, and triumphant keys. The minimal “There Will Be Beauty” lilts with the gentleness of a lullaby, sways with a rhythm of wind, and even employs the sound effect of wind in ways that are nearly rhythmic. You wouldn’t be too off the mark if the music feels like a spell of optimism to those listening.
If you would like a fair way to describe the music, think of it this way: imagine when the 50s found people excited about new technology and, therefore, brand new possibilities. So much so, they created a genre named “exotica” or “space age lounge”. Gentle Mental is what happens when exotica was born more out of trying to maintain that sense of certainty and positivity in a world that threatens such. This instrumental album understands your sense of fear and, as “Qui Vivra Verra” has, gives you a crackle of tranquility and hope within the madness.
If you are new to the Azalia Snail name, Gentle Mental would not be a bad release to start your journey with. Hopefully, this will inspire a deeper dive going forward.
Written by mynameisblueskye
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