Life (How Fast?)

Love Letters

Recorded in 2016 and 2017 in Ridgewood, Queens with additional recording and audio treatments done at IIWII in New Jersey, ‘A Given World of Good Energy’ marks Love Letters’ 4th release. Stitching together ambient passages, breakbeat explorations, athletic beats and a House lullaby, this release freshens up Love Letters’ catalog with some new sounds and ideas.

The album opens with a storyteller. Recorded through and featuring the on-off switch of the guitar amp used to record since he was 17 and used on tracks from his first release on Help, ‘Life (How Fast?)’ is drenched in reverb and Morse-code spelling out the phrase “You’re either buying shit, or selling shit”, a commentary on capitalism and an arrangement to reference his past. Following is ‘D_RIM2’, a track which began as a percussion workout and then morphed after a jam session with Stefan Ringer; just two bars of his were taken and dropped over the drums to add a new dimension of sound.

‘Bedroom Community’ cleans up Love Letters’ usual approach and adds some snap to his drum production, with a keyboard part found in an idea recorded in 2010. ‘Sea of Clouds’, a breakbeat spiced track that was recorded to reconcile his distaste for how the synth pan-flute sounds, and to make it his own in a big way. ‘Ducue’, previously released as a remix/single on the label Yield, is this pianists first time using a piano in a track. The line “do you close your eyes?” is borrowed from the moment his father walked by him on the piano working out the chords and asked “do you close your eyes when you play?” 

The album closes on a slower note with ‘Co-Locate’, essentially a house lullaby that had the kick stripped almost completely away over time and ‘Wish to Speak With You’, an acid-lead beatless track.