Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith

This is fabulous. Like a midpoint between Glasser and Invisible Conga People, plus woodwinds.

Definitely hearing glasser in the vocals and the way they're treated

Found out from a recent story that she comes from Orcas Island, one of the most beautiful but also fairly isolated places in the US. Whether or not that truly reflects in her art I don't know but I think it would encourage a certain independence.

I guess I could easily google it, but where is that ned?

Washington state apparently. That helps explain part of her aesthetic for me. She certainly doesn't sound like anything else out of LA right now. There's this organic pastoral quality to her sound that's very unique and it's wonderful hope her folk and classical background influences her electronic composition. Her new album is a bloody masterpiece BTW. One of the best things released so far this year. She's definitely leveled up.

Lovely stuff: Glasser/non-scary Fever Ray in the vocals, which presses my buttons

new interview @ popmatters

Driving a Spaceship Through Futuristic Jungles with Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith
http://www.popmatters.com/feature/driving-a-spaceship-through-futuristic-jungles-with-kaitlyn-aurelia-smith/

The album was heavily influenced by animated art, particularly the movie Nausicaa by Hayao Miyazaki, but also the work of Jean Giraud Moebius and Killian Eng. All three artists, Smith says, “have these neo-futuristic vibes that still feel connected to nature and have a spiritual quality to them.” She adds, “That’s always been very evocative for me and has always been my visual language for when I’m creating sounds. It’s always been in that world. I’m starting to try and connect my visual world with my auditory world and try and make sound environments that can help other people feel those visual worlds.”

otm

really liked euclid but this is wonderful

nothing new to add, this is just incredible. "Existence In The Unfurling" is a perfect piece of music, the way those glassy melodies spiral and leap across each other is otherworldly.

This is most excellent, and yeah, "Existence In The Unfurling" is so great, that, while really appreciating the composition of the short pieces here, and how finished they are...the lengthy exploration of the final track is just fantastic. What a closer.

Would echo the see her live if you can! The Bitchin' Bajas pairing last yr. was perfect (and Rob Frye from that outfit supplies horns and woodwinds here, I believe).

i saw her open for grouper last year in san francisco, and it was the only experience i've had where the opening act blew me away with their live performance. the new album is excellent, a cornucopia of wondrous sound, and i'm excited to have it accompany my life in these next few spring and summer months.

this is a gorgeous album

btw, the vinyl copies were very affordable, Euclid is $15 on amazon including digital download. They seemed slightly lightweight, but sound fantastic.

EARS is fantastic, can't wait to see her open for the AC next month.

this album is gorgeous and i love it. i wasn't going to say anything bc i have little to contribute beyond this but i wanted to annoy lj.

Yeah, I'm into this.

this is such a gift

Shared this album with a couple friends the other day very loud on the home hifi. They kind of just sat back and just said "wow" once the first track finished. After the album was done, we looked at each other and wondered aloud how we were going to put on another album after this one.

so good. have been nerding out on modular stuff lately - but more the gear than the music being made by it - so to hear something come along like this and just blow you away is a welcome correction as much as anything else.

GOOD MUSIC

yep

i might prefer euclid to the new one tbh

i do 2 but the new one is still wonderful

looking fw to seeing her live in NY soon. Put a song on this mix:

http://www.imposemagazine.com/bytes/new-music/dan-selzer-a-heavenly-imposition-mix

imago was complaining about this in another thread so i checked it out and am loving it so far, thanks LJ! :)

complaining?

Bitterly at that. His loss!

seriously, I don't keep up with most new ilx threads, but I don't see how this record is particularly ILX-friendly. Maybe because the review compares it to Fever Ray/The Knife?

i think it's just ilx friendly bc it's good and ilm posters are suckers for good music

not feeling this album. there are some good synth sounds on it but a lot of unpleasant sounds too.

which thread is all this complaining happening on?

OK, is this the worst piece of music writing ever?

http://cdn.fansided.com/wp-content/blogs.dir/229/files/2015/02/simpsons-pitchforks.jpg

fwiw i think this is p good but not standing out for me so far. i listen to a lot of music like this, it's nice but it's not blowing my mind.

The album is good

― Whiney G. Weingarten, Tuesday, April 5, 2016 12:19 PM (3 minutes ago)

Für lj - this is a staggering monument of artistic genius and musical magnificence. surely the greatest album of the year, if not the century. ten thumbs up - highly recommended!

We should just have "good"/"bad" polls from now on.

that's too absolutist. options should just be OK and eh

Is anyone else into Kara-lis Coverdale? I sort of group them together in my mind due to similarity of names, and KLC's music has more of an ecclesiastical Tim Hecker vibe but they both push the same emotional buttons for me.

(FYI if anyone is too much of a bottler to post on this entirely peaceable thread then their opinion basically doesn't exist and is irrelevant).

i like her colorful wires

this album sounds like aurelia smith traveled back to the garden of eden and captured the natural noises made by the birds of paradise soaring above lush fields and dense wet forests and two naked bodies listening, carefully, they embrace, moved by the music to tears and a sense of heavenly grace that can be shattered by nothing - not by snakes in the grass or fruit growing on trees. the album ends and they look at each other and wonder aloud how they can put on another album after this one.

this album is like breathing for the first time

i had never even seen a shooting star before.

25 years of rotations, passes through comets' paths, and travel, and to my memory I had never witnessed burning debris scratch across the night sky.

It's wonderful. Totally claustrophobic and warm and, yes, self-indulgent, but she is on a mission to prove she's more than a synth artist tinkling on some keyboards. Totally pulls it off in a dreamy, hazy, muffly way.

Also, I saw her play in an outdoor space in Silver Lake and everyone was just floored by the sincerity of it all. She is no joke.

Multiple xp to LG - I think this sounds like a lot of stuff that already exists but it excels at it.

I didn't think any of the posts in this thread were excessively effusive, but who wants to enjoy nice music when we can turn it into a clusterfuck of some kind

The experience and emotions tied to listening to Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith's Ears are like witnessing the stillborn birth of a child while simultaneously having the opportunity to see her play in the afterlife on Imax.

sorry i'm just dicking around, i think lj is being a dork, and i love this album even if euclid is a little better

lol

this album (EARS) is aptly titled because I literally feel like I truly have been given a new pair of EARS and am listening to music for the first time in my life

beats "wiggling"

But surely one sketches on a music easel.

New track: https://kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/track/lagoon

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rpXOlcpoj1c

Every time I listen to this record I forget it's on until "Expanding Electricity" rolls around. Really poor first single to album quality ratio.

yeah, couldn't wait after listening to the preview, got the album off bandcamp and it was such a let down after that first release.

Still waiting for the vinyl from Bandcamp, which was ordered on the first bandcamp friday!

holy fuck, this new record……. my god

I saw Max Tundra bigging this up, and reports are that it's a whole new sound, so I'll chance a listen, even though she's done nothing but annoy me before

Nah, same stuff repackaged. Maybe a bit less ambient than before, and there's probably more variation, but so many of the vocal, melodic, timbral choices are purpose-built to infuriate me still. Track 7 is quite good though! There I said it etc.

it leaked?

it came out yesterday

saw it being described as hyperpop and am disappointed it didn't live up to that

Well an hour ago when I posted that the bandcamp still had it in pre-order status. Just checked again and the page has updated, how about that.

I've given the new one a couple of half listens, and it's really not connecting. It seems too disjointed, and not in a fun po-mo OPN kind of way. Just ideas clashing with one another, with no real conceptual basis.

I still adore EARS though, and Sunergy. Guess I'm more into the bubbling synth arpeggios and orchestration, and less into the vocals and attempts at subversive 'structure'. KAS is great at ambient textures, and not so hot at 'songs' imo.

She’s playing a free show in a couple weeks at the museum where I work - in LA

https://hammer.ucla.edu/programs-events/2023/kaitlyn-aurelia-smith

KAS is great at ambient textures, and not so hot at 'songs' imo

I was broadly in this camp too until the jolly new single which does both texture and tune:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pODPke5PJ24

new song is excellent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DtnoOVol34

I was surprised to realise that I am actually super hyped for the new album, all the recent material has been great but I particularly like “Urges” and “Stare Into Me”.

Yeah half ot the album is out but this one sounds very promising.

just wanted to say i absolutely adore this album

Listening to her interview on Jamie Lidell's podcast, very interesting (for the music tech nerds mostly)

xpost It's a good one!

My favorite since The Kid or Sunergy. The last one did nothing for me, even though I admired the stretch, and I was on the verge of writing her off. Glad I didn't!

lol “admired the stretch”

I’ve often had that thought during yoga classes.

I’m also loving this album, though the density of the production makes the melodies more difficult to hold onto.

She is deejaying on NTS atm, felt like i was having my brain rearranged as I listened for an hour or so, quite liked it

new single “ruin” is quite drum n bass (and good)

track:
https://kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/track/ruin-2

Album:

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - Ruin: It's Not Just Music
https://kaitlynaureliasmith.bandcamp.com/album/ruin-its-not-just-music

releases October 2, 2026

lol dj martian. that’s a blast from ilx blast.