Caural

Zachary Mastoon finally releases his proper follow-up to his fantastic 2002 effort Stars on My Ceiling and hasn’t missed a step in the meantime. Mirrors for Eyes continues Caural’s ability to take hip-hop influenced programming and combine it with gorgeous electronic flares and haunting vocal samples to make yet another moving piece of musical work. Right off the bat we’re greeted with a lush transition of the harp-driven "Dead Armies” as it builds its samples into a greater soundscape to breath life into the psychedelic "Re-Experience Any Moment You Choose,” both chopping drums into dozens of fragments to give Caural his signature stuttered sound. There’s a few vocal turns this time around as Racecar from Chicago’s slept-on Modill rhymes nicely over a romantic hip-hop joint and, even though they might sound a little like whiney folk in their delivery, Hrishkesh Hirway and Paula Amitai provide some nice melodies to break up instrumentals. Mirrors for Eyes definitely excels the most when Caural relies on his production to take centre stage, dropping various horns, guitar feedback, toy pianos and other electronic orchestration to create very moving compositions for easy listening. The comparisons to Prefuse 73 are hard to not make, but with Scott Herren losing the plot lately it’s time for people to focus on this JetBlue Flight 292 survivor and Chicago native’s fantastic spliced drum arrangements.