picnic ‎– Creaky Little Branch LP

Creaky little branch! Oh my. Impossibly wholesome content warning. The follow up to Justin Cantrell and mdo's (of Folder) much-sought after 2021 debut delivers wholesale on the promise of that record, expanding their already emotionally redolent sound to new levels of both warmth and unresolvable melancholy. Honestly, that title is essentially onomatopoeic, impressing the idea of the wind passing through some digital configuration of nature. Very clear nods to late 90s glitch ala Oval, Mille Plateaux and such like, and it should be of absolutely no surprise to anyone that Craig Tattersall is involved here in some regard - Hood and especially The Humble Bee particularly clear touchstones for what the duo are aiming for. In the past those things may be, but picnic might also stand at the apex of the increasing move (back?) towards the human/natural in electronic and experimental music. Stuff like Malvern Brume, Burhlap, the Spillage Fete universe, where you can hear amongst the electronic manipulations that whistle through the leaves, that run of the water, that creaky little branch... Pretty and wholesome it may be, but perhaps also the sign of a shift in sensibility what with technology having failed us and all that.