- You Will Soon Find That Life Is Wonderful. It's a surprisingly upbeat sentiment for the times in which we live—particularly coming from a producer who calls himself Sad City. But if the metropolis from which Gary Caruth takes his name is his hometown—Glasgow—then his music evokes some other, sunnier place, a balmy idyll too perfect to exist in this world.
This EP is a masterclass in swooning, hi-def electronica, the sort of music that sidesteps cliché while sounding tantalisingly familiar at every turn. Opener "Polymath" trades on a heavily refracted Balearic vibe, its guitar and synth lines sculpted into great melodious sheets of sound over a kick so deep it's only detectable through the negative space it creates. "Easing," with its gorgeous bell-like tones, is similarly gratifying. Caruth dodges the expected euphoric climax, instead gradually bleeding out the mix until only a misty afterimage remains. The title track is less forthcoming but just as charming, sounding like an impressionistic rendering of Steve Reich's Music For 18 Musicians. But the ten-minute "What I Talk About" offers the greatest delights, its rich hi-end textures creating a landscape of almost unbearable brightness.
Tracklist A1 Polymath
A2 Easing
B1 What I Talk About
B2 You Will Soon Find That Life Is Wonderful