Heathered Pearls - "Loyal"

"Toe-tapping" and "ambient" are descriptions that rarely go together. The word ambient evokes images of calm and nature while toe-tapping does essentially the opposite. However, the beautifully serene ambient music on "Loyal" actually does both. If another artist threw in a simple kick/snare beat, this would be dance music. It might even be excellent dance music. Hipster-Runoff would call it post-nu-gaze-crunk, or something idiotic like that. 

But there is no kick or snare. There is no backbeat to demarcate one part from another. The music on "Loyal" has more of an ebb/flow binary to it than the usual, unambiguous up beat/down beat we are all used to in most rock and pop music.

Some of the textures are looped while others are "live" (or at least non-repeating). Sometimes the repeating and non-repeating patterns go together to form a recurring but not identical cycle, similar to breaking waves: the general pattern reoccurs but there are definitely variations. "Left Climber" and "Steady Veil" use these techniques, heavily.

"Loyal", taking most of its instrumentation from airy synths, is spacey and alien-sounding but not eerie or uncomfortable. Heathered Pearls' debut bravely straddles the line between rhythmic and arrhythmic while still sounding musical enough: a joy for seasoned experimental-music-lovers and a safe starting point for novices.