5 out of 5

Label: Auris Apothecary

Produced by: The Gentlemen’s Butcher (?)

On previous releases, The Gentlemen’s Butcher has effected minimalist guitar and atmospherics and a lo-fi hiss for soothing, contemplative works of drone and ambient. It’s been a late nite, sounds-mingle-with-your-dreams kind of project, a mysterious anonymity to the artist and recordings working well with the musical concept. Past Timefields is very much an advancement of this, forefronting guitar melodies for very cinematic tunes – something dusty and wizened on Dualooplay, and a comparatively aggressive bit of madness on Oscillobloom, a highlight which slips into backwards recordings and static.

That’s really the ante up, here: while not betraying that lo-fi hiss and solo aesthetic, a few further layers of noise and emotionality have turned an Auris Apothecary curiosity into one of my favorite releases from the label, and something that’s made me reexamine Butcher’s past works – Past Timefields’ title seems accurate, a small whirlwind of feeling as you sift through positive and negative memories, circling a drain of obsessive thoughts; it’s happy, sad, and haunting.