City Rain - Light Turned On
[Boltfish]

With organic being the current buzzword in the electronic world, it is not enough these days simply to include analogue instrumentation and found sounds into your music, it’s all about finding the right blend. Over the last year or so the likes of d_rradio, Kiln, phon°noir and recently, Acumen, have all raised the bar with their inventive ideas and compositional excellence.

Boltfish Recordings, in fairness, have been preaching the ‘o’ word longer than most – since their inception, in fact – and in Philadelphian producer Ben Runyan they have found a kindred spirit. Under his City Rain guise, Runyan’s sound compliments the Boltfish manifesto, which sets out to stretch the boundaries of Glitch and IDM as far away as possible from its soulless, mechanistic roots.

For a debut outing, Runyan’s seamless blend of modern micro-beats, crystalline synth textures and field recordings reaches levels of ingenuity at times. The found sounds are accumulated from various sources revolving round his everyday life, offering a personal touch to what can be an emotionally detached style of music. Whether it is the vehicle sounds found on 'Left You a Letter', the distant storms featured in 'Philadelphia' or the downtown atmospherics highlighted in 'Back on Track', time and time again Runyan proves to posses a considerable compositional poise. Part of the album’s charm is trying to decipher the origins of each sound.

It offers an intriguing insight into his life, the curtains and windows are all left open and Runyan is completely at ease with the intrusion – in fact, he encourages it. Soundwise, 'Light Turned On' has a lot going for it too, while a Trentemoller influence is undeniable, the ethereal melodic nature and celestial beauty of tracks such as 'While I Was Dreaming', 'Click Clack' and 'Mia' will also appeal to fans of esoteric electronic acts like Bola, Arovane and Near The Parenthesis. Marking 'Light Turned...' as one of those records that compliments hazy Indian summer nights.

Light Turned On Tracklisting:

1. 12
2. A Familiar Warmth
3. Back On Track
4. Face For Books
5. Mia
6. Well You Said
7. While I Was Dreaming
8. Click Clack
9. Philadelphia
10. Chasing Leaves
11. Left You A Letter