SPILL ALBUM REVIEW: KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH – GUSH

KAITLYN AURELIA SMITH
GUSH
NETTWERK RECORDS

Minimal synthesized classical music, three words that don’t always go together but those three words best describe Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith’s latest album, Gush. Smith is a classily trained musician from the United States who uses synthesizers to create her version of classical music for synthesizer and keyboards. Smith has been releasing music since 2015 and has released quite a bit of material. For Gush, Smith is stripping back her sound and creating dream like synth-pop with a classical slant. She also sings a great deal, and her voice is angelic and perfect for the music.

In a lot of ways, Smith brings to mind Shara Nova/My Brightest Diamond but she does not copy her, but there is a similarity. The opening track, for example, “Drip” builds on rhythms and beats before the keyboards float in. Smith sings over a heavy beat and lets the song roll out sounds layering bit by bit. It is quite dramatic in an interesting way, and it does a great deal in establishing what she has in store for the listener. It is quite brilliant. “Urges” follows and once again she lets the song build on itself. Her use of beats adds a great deal of energy and foreboding for the song. And it works.

There are some songs that are best described as retro, such as “The World Just Got A Little More Big” and the instrumental “Lay Down”. Yet she makes them her own, she adds her spin and she has created a whole different sound and song. The last track on the album, “In the Dressing Room”, is a very short experimental, fun track, which brings to mind George Harrison’s Electronic Sound. It is a fun way to end the album showing that not only is she experimental but likes to have fun too.

Gush is a fascinating album full of sounds and music that seemingly come out of nowhere and everywhere at the time. That may not make sense, but it does when you listen to the album Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith creates beautiful music out of very little and yet a lot of sounds. It is a warm album, full of emotion and feeling. Gush takes electronic music to a different level, most likely due to the sparseness of the sound. She is comfortable with silence in the tracks, and this helps create the uniqueness of the overall album and her music.

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