Los Angeles located Leaving Records have never followed the record label template. It’s more a community of experimental who see releasing music as part of their reaching out. Matthewdavid has been at the hub of this wheel of creativity since 2008, co-founding Leaving with artist Jesselisa Moretti and steadily releasing his own music via the portal throughout its lifetime.
His roots in the underground and electronic hip-hop scene were revisited on 2018’s Time Flying Beats but his output through Leaving has also explored more fluid, hypnotic instrumental dimensions (check in with the Trust The Guide And Glide from 2016 or 2020’s Care Tracts). Although such releases could be lazily labelled ‘New Age’, Matthewdavid’s music has always shown more personality and edge, long form and immersive yes, but also unpredictable and probing.
Now comes the announcement of the next opportunity to plunge into his steadily evolving sound-world with a new album Mycelium Music due on the shelves sometime around April and prior to that a primer EP On Mushrooms (available from 31st January through Leaving Records). This prequel release maybe allows for a tantalising glance at where Matthewdavid’s latest sonic explorations will take us but equally it stands on its own, carefully formed and expressively significant. There is a confluence of electronic energies and ambient reflections here that provide a vibrant glow.
Fittingly for a collection that oozes vitality, ‘On Mushrooms’ opens with two tracks recorded at Leaving Record’s ‘Listen to Music Outside in the Daylight Under a Tree’ event which regularly stretches out in La Tierra de la Culebra community art park in LA. Both swell with a natural richness, the first cut, Culebra With Wilkes (featuring labelmate Sam Wilkes), revolving gracefully around calmly pulled strings that tug harder before a disconnection. Under a Tree follows, trickling with synth line delicacy and gradually looking skywards, music formed in touch with nature.
The other tracks, all home recordings, find Matthewdavid reaching further, experimenting with intricacy and tone. The looping, stately Dampener takes whispers of gamelan and drone on a slow gliding procession while closing track One4G opens out the sound as it submerges through the echoes. Add in the swelling of dense layer waves in the collaboration with audio-rhythmicist Brin on Too High To Play Bear’s Campout plus the cryptic sound codes that scramble through A New Ambient and you have one intense offering.
Get your copy of ‘On Mushrooms’ by Matthewdavid from your local record shop or direct from : https://matthewdavidmcq.bandcamp.com/album/on-mushrooms
