Easily Suede shifts pitches with ‘Sustained Chord’

Adam Babar streams latest release from solo sound collage project

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  • Courtesy Easily Suede



Under the name Easily Suede, Adam Babar (Faun and A Pan Flute) creates upbeat and narcotic suites of isolated and processed found sounds that pull from hip-hop instrumentals, modern classical, and experimental minimalism. Babar’s penchant for sampled psychedelia has already graced the masses with wistful sound collages, a one-off Nomen Novum collaboration, and a “chopped and stewed” Lonnie Holley remix, among other curiosities. Earlier this week, Babar returned with Sustained Chord, a six-song EP self-released via Bandcamp. Throughout each song, Babar reveals a new curiosity in tape manipulation, smearing out or compressing various hip-hop lyrics sampled from the ether to show bizarre new intricacies in the briefest phrase. While opener “Kroo” largely resembles the warble of Easily Suede’s debut release, the narrative shifts into more Atlanta-centric cues, processing errant noise you might hear blasting from cars driving down any ITP street. “Dai Loi” and “Saltango” drift in an amorphous shamble of echoing samples. “Toomuch” layers on pitch-shifted samples in a display that’s both beautiful and grotesque. Closers “Gilmoreemicks” and “Ta Heal’m” round everything back to the project’s M.O., abstracting an aural painting that rides a rhythmic groove.

SUSTAINED CHORD by easily suede

★★★☆☆