February 04, 2023 · By Justin Vitale

Summary:

Channel Select's New Air / DAYTIME is genuinely good time that always seems to breeze by in an instant every time it enters my cassette deck. The track lengths leave you wanting more of the screwed and drunken ambiance that outpours so coolly. The consistency in style and songwriting approach really ties together both albums in a way that makes listening a full experience that you don't want to end.

Exclusive from the Artist:

“Equipment was just Ableton and some drum samples, a bunch of compression and tape hiss, plus some amazing songs I sampled of course (which DAYTIME wouldn't be here without). My inspiration was mainly down to having watched a lot of 90’s commercial uploads from a particular YouTube channel. It got me feeling a lot of warmth and security and safety when in that weird sorta snapshot of that time period, even though its heavily romanticized. I wanted to make an EP inspired by that feeling - stemming from 90s tv broadcasts and commercial aesthetics specifically.”

New Air

Favorite Track:
SEETHRU

Review:

Channel Select does a deviant job of getting the beat to fall apart at the right places while keeping the flow together. The swing of the first track SEETHRU was responsible for me picking up the 7 track cassette, along with the intrigue of the cover art. The pedestrian style graphic design reminiscent of dollar store packing for garden supplies, had a mystery for me that I needed to hear what audio could possibly be associated with it.

Upbeat noise filled gusts of air permeate from one track to the next. The heavy swaying and tape hiss adds a brokenness to the album that makes it feel like it was unearthed somewhere deep from a cardboard box of VHS that was lost the basement for decades. The sample selection is an elated and nostalgia fueled trip that isn’t identifiable to anything in particular - just a sense of something that is well known.

Heavy funk influences are apparent throughout the album with deep groves pulsing against dying samples and static. Sometimes whimsical, sometimes intoxicated, Channel Select puts the rhythm on tumble dry and builds new dimensions around catchy turn-arounds and cascading runs. New Air is a short and succinct blast of energy that cycles through its themes at a quick pace - it’s jagged edges hook into your ears and feels like a carefree joyride through the white noise of TV snow.

DAYTIME

Favorite Track: HEAT

Released a year prior to New Air, the album DAYTIME is included as the B side on the cassette release (the j-card insert is reversible to reveal the album art on the other side). Having not heard this earlier work previously, I could easily tell that New Air had continued off its premise. The sample selection is interchangeable between the two and yet again full of cadence and bounce.

Mixing in hiphop style edits and crooked fluctuations, DAYTIME is a strong and cohesive progression from one track to the next. It retains the same bite sized song lengths and retrospective flashback where you savor the intensity before it turns to haze. Each track is just simply colorful and fun, there is a welcome lightness to the composition that makes DAYTIME so easy to enjoy. Every edit and loop is obviously well thought out but comes across effortless and lively.

EMAIL diverges slightly into a more psychedelia feel and builds a unique sonic character that was a nice touch of variation. WHEN, SIDEWALK, HEAT, and GIRL all very reminiscent of 90's hiphop instrumentals, while QUADRA finds itself somewhere in between both worlds. Overall across both EP’s New Air and DAYTIME acutely vibe together, steadily delivering a healthy dose of warmth and buzz.

Follow Channel Select:

Twitter - https://twitter.com/channel_select

Bandcamp - https://channelselect.bandcamp.com/

Soundcloud - https://soundcloud.com/channel-select

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