Label: Plastiq Music

Produced by: ?

3 out of 5

With all due deference, “pleasant” rather wholly describes this work.

Coming from the expansive and experimental Plastiq Music electronic label, PQMQ. Workshop’s Birds Of North America was shipped to me as a freebie with a purchase, and noting the same disc in various used CD bins at the time suggested that wasn’t uncommon.

This doesn’t suggest the music is bad: sometimes there’s stuff that just doesn’t market well, and this can be the best way to get it out there. That said, I return to where I started: if you glance at the list of instruments (synths) and know the runtimes (not listed on the album, but a couple tracks in, you can tell most songs will be less than a couple minutes), you get / can guess the gist – that the album is background; brief, boppy burbles inspired by the sounds of the various birds it names, all read off at each song’s beginning by a calming, documentary-style voiceover.

Sometimes the chirps of the titular bird start us off; sometimes they’re woven in. It’s not quite ambient, as there are light beats and melodies throughout, but it’s somewhat akin to elevator music – harmless, toe-tappy. Pleasant.

The album reveals some humor with tracks like Mourning Dove and Western Screech Owl, which have a funkier shuffle to them, almost reminding of old school platformer VGM, though not as complex. And the whole thing is capped off by a twee closer (Nightingale) with vocals from Sixpence None The Richer’s Leigh Nash.