“Wow! A gorgeous inventive album full of wondrous haunting melodies, lofi guitars and barely there percussion. Songs so delicate they feel like they're hanging by a thread of silk.” - Constant Little Ghost (Check out his celebrated 2024 release The Yellow Knife)
“That was special! Everything feels patched together, but connected with melody and almost desperate emotion with well-placed repetition. Add to that Kate's bright voice and it becomes almost hypnotic. Amazing work.” - Florgoth (artist & community builder)
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Untidy Music - a #FeatureFriday selection
(3 reviews)
Main Review
From the offset 'Effusion' by Sweet Freeze gives you a sense of isolation. With it's metallic sounding spaces, it's thin synthetic strings and the 3 or 4 note guitar motifs. The vocals sound intimate yet jarring without sounding obtuse. It's a personal recording dripping with an honesty that hits you in the heart.
It's lo-fi and experimental and almost feels improvised but still maintains a sense of purpose.
You are drawn into a world that maybe unfamiliar but still has it roots in humanity. It's a very human album despite the intentional glitches and stark recordings.
The melancholy lives alongside a truthfulness and a beauty that possibly needs a second listen to understand or feel the way it was intended although it doesn't feel planned or contrived. It's a pure, raw and emotional journey.
Listen to it in it's entirety and let yourself go with it. You will be rewarded.
by Florgoth
In her own words, Kate Sattler's "Effusion" is an album about leaving fear behind and to live life to it's fullest. I would say that it achieved just that. Kate utilizes short and catchy melodies in a repetitive pattern and her bright, gentle voice in combination with sometimes abrasive sounds to create a sense of urgency and movement.
In "Seedling" it's a shaker and bass-drum, driving the track with an unexpected pace; in "Lullaby" a metronome is used for the same purpose as are Kate's quick and distorted vocals in "Beware". It is this drive that makes the entire album feel alive and constantly moving, a sensation that I find makes for a gripping listening experience. Adding hypnotically beautiful melodies and haunting vocals elevates the songs on this album further; providing a rather intimate feeling. Overall, this is an album I can highly recommend to everyone that is willing to get taken on a journey.
by Foxy HxC McFly
A delicate and ethereal lofi album that will take you on a Journey of it's own from start to finish, like the genre so often does.
Effusion is a nine piece album more than worthy of a listen, preferably in one sitting, with good headphones and while relaxing so you can focus on every note and every choice made by the artist on every track in the album. A lovely one I can't recommend enough.
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Lars Haur, On the Fringes of Sound
At it's heart, Effusion seems to be a quiet little acoustic indie rock album but manages to end up being so much more than that. The soft guitars are combined with a plethora of unconventional sounds and surprising production choices that make some deeply introspective and intimate. Some of the tracks are much more straightforward than others in a sonic sense while others delve deeper into experimenal sounds and textures. However, they all manage to cohesively integrate all of their elements quite well alongside Sattler's impeccably recorded vocals.
The opening track features acoustic guitar and a sweet vocal performance, but also puts a strange rattling sound almost front and center. It is difficult to explain the sound but it serves as a substitute for drums or other percussion and gives the track a quality that sounds as though it is rolling along, right into the next track. "Beware" feature some more interesting percussion though much more sparse than the previous track and sees Sattler process her vocals in unconventional ways with much of it sounding clean and crisp with certain parts suddenly throwing a lo-fi aesthetic on her voice, like she is singing to us through and old tape of some sort. "The Between" sees the guitar replaced by a soft electric piano with a quiet buzzing and minute vocals that reach just barely above a whisper. As a whole, the album is a rather interesting mixture with all the elements of an intimate indie album but with all the sonic experimentation of an electroacoustic work. It is a captivating listen in its simultaneous apparent simplicity and conceptual complexity.
