It is incredible the way that music can drive our imagination and take us traveling around possibilities, places, stations of the year and so much more. Each time I listen to Tomorrow’s Child music, my mind quickly travels to a cold, snow-covered place somewhere on a mountain. Because that’s the way I feel Tomorrow’s Chile music: kind of glacier, deep, melancholic as the Winter, yet chaotic. Not sure if anyone else feels the same, there are so many other possibilities and landscapes within his music.
Words by Marco Guerra
Discovered via http://musosoup.com
So, Tomorrow’s Child is based in Cornwall, UK, and he grew up in High Wycombe, known as a large market town that is about 45 minutes away from London. This year, I’ve discovered and reviewed the singles “Ruination” and “Spectres of Summer”, two tracks that are now on Beach Ghosts, the debut album he has just released. The album is admittedly marked by the loss of his father, shortly after he moved to Cornwall. It also touches on other personal memories and also memories of the land where he currently lives. It also has something ghostly running through the entire LP. So, the title Beach Ghosts makes even more sense.
The album starts precisely with the track-title “Beach Ghosts”. A track with a strong bass line and with a solid kick, not a 4 x 4 one. These are breakbeats a la Aphex Twin, an influence that I see a lot here. Check out also the dreamy synths to see what I’m talking about. “Spectres of Summer” comes next and here you can expect a catchy and melancholic melody with strong breakbeats in the background. “The Tinworm Turns” starts with a guitar played by Tomorrow’s Child. Suddenly, you hear the vocals and you find yourself in a celtic environment, dancing to the drum n’ bass beat that comes right after the vocals. “Death Down Below” brings us chaos and fury, in an intense spiral of emotion, rhythm, and distortion. “Ruination” is a sorrowful, complex and astonishingly beautiful piece of music. It goes from ambient to breakbeat in a glimpse, so solid. “Once Great Western”, brings a cheerful mood, with a well-dragging bass sound and contrasting high-pitched synths. Melancholy and glacial landscapes return with "Lost In Mizzle," which again presents us with dreamy, continuous pads and a breakbeat as a background image. “Sea Of Uncertainty” has Tomorrow’s Child vocals, in a kind of gothic / new wave electronic approach. The album closes with “A Philip Bliss Beyond This World”, now we find ourselves in front of an orchestra, a track that seems to have the word “crescendo” on top of it and again the ghosts come and go, on a “hide and seek” game that surprises you among the shadows of the valley of death.
Beach Ghosts is an intense experience, with a strong narrative and a peculiar artistic vision.