Douglas Martin is beyond ready to put on some summer clothes.
“Shore Sunset Part 1” is the sound of the sun wiping sleep out of your eyes during the golden hour. A bright drone, twinkles from behind your eyelids blinking at a meandering pace.
Throughout the course of his career — No Age, Randall’s quietly immersive solo tape Morbidly Upbeat, even Wives and Rat Fist to a degree — the Los Angeles musician’s guitar work has been heavy on texture. There is a warmth which permeates throughout even his most thrashy outings. This, the first offering from his newest solo release Sound Field Volume One, is decidedly on the lighter end of the spectrum of his work, unfolding as slowly and gracefully as its title suggests; waves crashing in some far off distance, farther than any human’s line of sight goes.
Courtesy of Arthur King, the sprawling collective of Los Angeles-based experimental musicians and visual artists who put out a pretty excellent Bill Baird album a handful of months ago, the song and corresponding video for “Shore Sunset Part 1” are inspired by a daylong drive down I-10, through the suburbs, the sprawl of DTLA, and the beach, as glacial as Los Angeles traffic in its most frustrating moments. The visual captures a wide shot of cars moving along freeway lanes with scattered palm trees and a mass of ocean water in the distance. Bird’s eye views of houses and strip malls blended in with the rustling tide. People letting the waves smack them in the face. Rollercoasters, Ferris wheels, flags flapping in the distance. The sun not as a blinding, pummeling force, but a dull orb just chilling from behind an overcast sky.
The serenity of Southern California can be and often is overshadowed by the overwhelming feeling of having too many people to see, things to do, et cetera. “Shore Sunset Part 1” goes a long way to offer a moment to close your eyes and take in the beauty and majesty hidden beyond the hustle and bustle, the bikinis and muscles.
