Tommy Ashby - “Moonflowers (Binaural Acoustic Version)”
Tommy Ashby is an indie-folk freight train that is absolutely relentless in dropping new and phenomenal music. But what’s more is that we have been driven to feature every single track he’s sent to us since we started the blog. Everyone has heard the phrase, “all killer and no filler,” and that is exactly what is happening here. And though we are completely convinced that it has something to do with his PhD in spacial audio, we challenge you to press play on any of Ashby’s releases without feeling compelled to hear them all.
While we will go out on a limb and say that we have never heard any bad music come out of Scotland, Ashby raises this bar to a whole new level with “Moonflowers (Binaural Acoustic Version).” This track is the redux of a tune from his recently released LP, Lamplighter, brought into your ears with a heavenly acoustic guitar performance and magnificent layers of vocals. And there’s not much more to the arrangement than that, other than some ghostly padding, but what he has accomplished here is quite magical, adding a new, ethereal dimension through his utilization of a 3-D binaural head microphone.
To be quite honest, we have no idea what this microphone is or does, but we suddenly want one, even though they kind of look like something straight out of Black Mirror. “Moonflowers (Binaural Acoustic Version)” is simply the one of the finest, stripped-back folk performances that we’ve ever heard. If you’re a fan of S. Carey, Novo Amor, and/ or Ben Howard, you need to smash that play button as if there were no tomorrow.
About the track, Ashby adds: “In Moonflowers I wanted you to be able to hear the vocals wandering around you in the mix, to feel like you were inside the song. And the way to do that was to move around the microphone as I sang the vocals. The binaural microphone is shaped like a head so it was like I was serenading it. It was such a fun way to record, I could move closer in or further away, moving between the ears of the listener. I think it gives a unique and immersive listening experience."
We’re not looking to spoil any surprises here, and it probably goes without saying, but this will definitely not be the last time that Tommy Ashby appears on our blog.
-HD