FAINT WAVES

Bird Of Paradise was a release that marked my return to the Eclectics label back in September. After a brief exclusivity period, I’m happy to bring the maxi-single home to my page, featuring all-new artwork.

Title track, Bird Of Paradise, is a warm and driving dose of tropical synthpop. Catchy synth-marimbas and sparing shaku hits dance atop shimmering pads, buoyed by simple but effective fretless bass action. All of this with a panoramic new age nature backdrop, mind you. It’s slow dream house with a Miami Vice bent.

B-Side, The Deepest Blue, ratchets up the tempo a bit and has the groove to match but finds itself the jazzier of the two. A synthetic vibraphone melody flows like water over a bed of sparkling pads, while aquatic clanging and whirls of synthesizer punctuate the tune. The second half finds a distant flute and a howling loon joining the proceedings. Iberian exotica if you’ve ever heard it.

Included are two mellow “lounge” mixes. These alternate mixes trade the tropical kitsch for chilled-out piano and nylon guitar, crafting an entirely different sonic feel. Bird Of Paradise has been re-imagined from the ground up, echoing the early 90’s work of Yello (“Capri Calling”) and Dancing Fantasy (“Beyond The Horizon”). The Deepest Blue follows suit, albeit with its own unique identity, featuring newly added bongos and ethereal vox samples.

I was particularly proud of this single when it released and in my opinion, it’s pretty classic Faint Waves, a mild return to form in some respects maybe. Though I’d argue there is no “form” in terms of my output, just what’s been put out there and resonated the most with people. I would say this one is among my finest work, though it did arise out of a failed extended play that I was trying to put together for Eclectics, that never came together but at least this maxi-single did. Went ahead and produced a slightly more appealing artwork for it as well, the last art was fine and fit just fine, I just wanted to present a different package.

UPDATE:

In other news, I’m still out here plodding along and I have been working on music when the spirit moves me to do so. I just have no release dates for anything and don’t know if or when anything will come out, I don’t concern myself with those things because I’m not interested in forcing anything (as I mentioned in my year in review for 2025). Something will hopefully come out sometime. There are a few irons in the fire for sure and if something comes together and it comes out, I’ll obviously update you here on the site and Bandcamp. I work a lot these days and a lot of the free time I do have has been dedicated to writing and watching movies lately. As you’ll recall, I penned an article on Road House last month, a favorite film of my youth and one that remains a favorite today.

Speaking of movies; I think the modern media landscape and streaming has kind of worn thin for me in some ways, I do not appreciate the way things are, despite the immediacy of it. I don’t have a lot of faith or trust in the media powers that be to have my best interest at heart and when I see happenings like the potential Netflix/Warner Bros merger (which thankfully is being investigated and hopefully being stopped altogether), it just makes me anxious and/or concerned for the state of IP, of television, and especially film. I think these things are being threatened, along with art as a whole. I don’t think it’s an especially “alarmist” perspective to have either; we’re talking about a time when so much property is being dumped into the A.I blender (legally and illegally), a time where something you like can just be wiped from digital existence (even if you “owned” it), and a time where some films aren’t making what they should at the box office (there’s some hope on that front—just not if Netflix gets a say on a large chunk of what comes to theaters and for how long).

All of this to say, I’m an advocate for physical media. It’s a worthwhile investment that matters because ownership is largely being stripped from us, slowly but surely. If you like something, support it. More than viewership matters. You can apply that attitude to art, to literature, to music, to television, to film, whatever. Buy an art piece. Buy a CD, buy a tape (yes, a lot of modern acts make tapes now), buy a vinyl record. Buy a book. Buy a Blu-Ray. It’s a privilege we still have. If you’re anything like me too and you want to own more films physically (and find hidden gems), get into Boutique Blu-Ray labels like Vinegar Syndrome, Criterion, Arrow Video, and Kino Lorber, among others.