Shawn Locus - The Perfection Misguided

Release date: 10/27/2023Shawn Locus is a new addition to the Carpe Sonum roster, but Locus' obvious alacrity with all things softly synthetic and sequenced heralds a brash new talent. At first glance, track titles don’t belie tangerine dreams as much as something wicked this way comes: “Tormented By A Living Paradise” and “Digesting the Corpse of All Existence” suggests that Locus is hardly interested in whiling away the days staring at little fluffy clouds. Titular imagery aside, there is something of a slight edge drawn about these engaging digital paradoodles, but the artist appears wholly infatuated with what analog and digital tools can illustrate rather than getting lost in atmospheric reverie. Bleeps, bloops, and reverberations abound, punching through the air like materializing UFOs; microscopic sounds bray and billow as they’re coaxed from candy-colored filters and sentient plug-ins; pulsations mimic the silky hues of marimbas and vibraphones as they cluster about environment