Be Honest: “Tea Sugar”

Man made versus nature’s bounty… memory and unknown futures… sometimes music can stop a listener in their tracks, focusing them on the world they exist in for that moment, other times we drift so far back in our skull boxes we don’t know where we’re going. Be Honest’s new album Tea, Sugar, Soda, Soap accomplishes this seemingly at odds past vs. present vs. future for nearly fifty minutes, over two side-long compositions. The expert soundscaping of Ireland’s Be Honest (Ian Maleney) captures both the sounds of the natural world and the deft manipulation of electronics. There’s a commitment to patience in conception and a feeling by the listener that the artist is painting with a skillful hand. According to Maleney’s own, Fallow Records, “The album is based on field recordings collected over the course of a year from the Brosna river basin in Offaly in the Irish midlands. These recordings were then overlaid with a series of improvised guitar playing, experimental instrument triggering and generative synth patches designed to short-circuit preconceived compositional ideas and habitual performance techniques.” We can only say, “well done,” and sit mesmerized by the sinuosity of the vibrations.

Tea, Sugar, Soda, Soap is available for pre-order from Fallow Records

Written by Jeff Daily