Salamanda’s colourful, luminous digital music began as a fantasy. Korean producers Sala (aka Uman Therma) and Manda (aka Yetsuby) instructed Crack journal in early 2022 that they hoped, by means of making songs, to retreat from the drudgery of contemporary life to the imaginary worlds they dreamed up after they have been youngsters. It’s a sense that their information over the previous few years—playfully impressionistic, filled with sunny synth melodies and an unrelenting spirit of curiosity—vividly evoke.
Their newest, In Parallel, is a vibrant enlargement of those themes. The title of the primary monitor, “Nostalgia,” would possibly really feel apparent for a duo whose music has mined the sensation so totally. Nevertheless it matches this foggy composition, which opens with the distant chatter of kids enjoying, finally fading into lapping synthesizer melodies and featherlight percussion. Its acquainted, golden-hour emotionality makes for the kind of music that looks like a heat reminiscence the primary time you hear it.
Salamanda are most snug inhabiting this mode—In Parallel is vivid and elaborate however unfolds at a contemplative tempo. Their strategy remembers the ornate information Jon Hassell was making towards the latter a part of his profession, or the intricate emotionality discovered on labels like West Mineral Ltd.; there may be motion and momentum on In Parallel, however Salamanda at all times discover house for stillness. Even on tracks that foreground percussion and rhythm, just like the sleepwalking balearic murmurs of “Solar Tickles” or the aqueous burbles of “Purple Punch,” In Parallel’s motion is affected person. It oozes slowly, shimmering like motor oil in rainwater.
On 2022’s Ashbalkum, the duo discovered plenty of energy within the playful potential of the human voice, splashing wordless coos throughout the file. They use vocals in equally summary methods on In Parallel, together with the gasping title monitor, which smears ghostly syllables throughout gently pooling electronics—underscoring the craving that pulses beneath the file’s extra summary moments. However In Parallel’s most placing second takes a special strategy. Whereas nonetheless oozy, otherworldly, and surreal in its personal proper, “Selfmade Jam” pushes the boundaries of Salamanda’s sound by providing up what’s successfully a pop music. The lyrics are easy, little greater than a nursery rhyme—“Make a jam/On my own”—however the monitor is sticky and candy. There’s nothing else prefer it amongst In Parallel’s pensive items, however roughly hewn as it’s, it’s genuinely memorable—half schoolyard chant, half radio hit beamed in from Sweet Land.
