Astronauts etc. – Mystery Colors

Once every so often there’s a band you’ll hear who’ll produce a song which is astromonically good, but then you may either hear little from them, alternatively, their follow up will turn out to be merely a damp squib. Seldom do you come across a band who follow good with great – however, one of the few to do so recently are the mangificent Astronauts Etc.

Astronauts Etc rocketed on to my iPod (see what I did there), a few weeks ago with the track Mystery Colors. Being the brainchild of Berkeley student Anthony Ferraro, Astronauts Etc produce a chilled, ambient, and incredibly well produced sound akin to Bon Iver – and this track is a fantastic introduction to the unique and melodic nature of their music.

This particular song is beautiful. It possesses a dreamy soundscape where the electronica merges almost Active Child like with Anthony’s soaring falsetto vocals. Anthony himself, is a master of the electronic sound after he had to stop pursuing a career in classical piano due to having arthritis – and, who knows, in a musical sense, it could be a blessing that he chose this genre of music instead of piano.

This song itself is a quite reflective piece with themes of betrayal, being locked inside, and spending far too much time focusing on other things as opposed to each other. Indeed, this song sounds like a processional stomp of random break-up emotions, and I can imagine this guy walking along the beach on an evening and listening to this track, whilst trying to de-tangle a love mess that he once had: “We’d spoken just the other evening, outside of someone else’s window, now I’m feeling so betrayed…”

Whatever it means, it’s a chilled and marvellous listen. His follow up track “You Can Tell” is equally intoxicating. Listen to it with your eyes closed – relax, and enjoy.