Western Canadian Renaissance man Jonny Dylan Hughes makes ambient music as BRANCHES and house beats as Slow Start. He's also occasionally himself.
In his new single under his own name — the first since 2018 — Hughes embraces more of an electropop soundscape. The new Bandcamp release "Devastation" is five-plus minutes of shimmering synths and drum machines. The timely lyrics seem born of the COVID-19 era's tribulations: "Have you ever had your world collapse / Like the stress was charging you tax?" Lines about salting food even though he can't taste it (and not knowing what year/month/day it is) feel extremely on the nose.
Hughes' voice is simultaneously tender and processed as he sings about a devastating revelation and his fatherly desire to protect his children from feeling the same hurt. The track concludes with a field recording of fireworks going off, evoking a little light in the darkness.
"Devastation" was mixed by Christopher Teti in Montreal. Listen to the track below.
In his new single under his own name — the first since 2018 — Hughes embraces more of an electropop soundscape. The new Bandcamp release "Devastation" is five-plus minutes of shimmering synths and drum machines. The timely lyrics seem born of the COVID-19 era's tribulations: "Have you ever had your world collapse / Like the stress was charging you tax?" Lines about salting food even though he can't taste it (and not knowing what year/month/day it is) feel extremely on the nose.
Hughes' voice is simultaneously tender and processed as he sings about a devastating revelation and his fatherly desire to protect his children from feeling the same hurt. The track concludes with a field recording of fireworks going off, evoking a little light in the darkness.
"Devastation" was mixed by Christopher Teti in Montreal. Listen to the track below.
