- It's been over three years since the last release from Time Wharp, real name Kaye Loggins, a longtime affiliate of Brooklyn collective Astro Nautico. Her self-titled debut LP sees her emerging from the hiatus with a fully-formed signature sound that ties together ambient synth music and jacking drum machine tracks.
The album is unkempt but not lo-fi. It's peppered with moments of managed chaos that leave it feeling pleasantly rough around the edges. "Pneumatic For The People" introduces the motifs that play out across the rest of Time Wharp, opening with cosmic pads and noodling synths that stretch effortlessly across live drum flourishes. From those opening moments the album expands and contracts, and its gauzy, gaseous contours begin to harden into sharper angles. It culminates with the upbeat house groove of "Cole Dub." That track—which received a lovely FaltyDL remix prior to the album's release—brings Time Wharp's musicality to the fore, with its many interlocking melodies, subtle syncopations and careful handling of jazzy saxophone lines.
Time Wharp's beatless moments command as much attention as the danceable numbers. Ambient cut "Castle" harnesses swollen, retro synth tones and sparkling arpeggios, sounding like a New Age cassette tape or soundtrack for an '80s documentary about intergalactic space travel. It sets up the album's closing track nicely; "Tophat" is an understatedly infectious nine-minute outing that takes its sweet time building a groove before dissolving it bit by bit. At 40 minutes, the LP could have used another track or two to connect the dots between either side of Loggins' sound. Time Wharp nonetheless succeeds with an enthralling narrative arc and a singular, cohesive style that delicately balances dissonance and harmony.
Tracklist01. Pneumatic For The People
02. Works
03. Market Solution
04. Median
05. Cole Dub
06. Rag
07. Castle
08. Tophat