Angel Ecology by Blurry the Explorer

Often when we choose music to spend our time with, we unconsciously gravitate towards sounds that fulfill our needs at the time— whether it's music for our bodies, music for our minds, or music for our spirits. Angel Ecology, the second full-length from Blurry the Explorer, is a rare record that delivers on all three. Carefully constructed in Lisbon and Brooklyn studios, Blurry the Explorer expands on their discography with a warm, jubilant album that brings to mind the delicate intricacy of origami, or the many layered crystals of a chandelier— offering us a blur of overlapping syncopations and reverent melodies that leave the listener entranced and wanting more.

Blurry the Explorer is primarily comprised of Gustin plus bassist Ricardo Dias Gomes and guitarists Ryan Dugre and Leo Abrahams. On Angel Ecology, they’re joined by a gang of guest vocalists (Kalmia Traver and Tōth of Rubblebucket, Indigo Sparke, Tall Juan, and others) and horn players, all of whom give the album the atmosphere of a roving party— made foot-tapping by Gustin's expert drumming. “Window Spider” starts something like a lost Ennio Morricone score, with blasts of horns and drum kit providing sporadic punctuation to the lonesome fingerpicking of nylon strings, eventually leading us to a place lush and pastoral. The introspective title track "Angel Ecology," offers a meditation in stillness— a needed reminder to slow down and remember the beauty in each passing breath.

Every song goes beyond what you might expect of it, full of gratuitous additional hooks and ingenious production ideas. Across the album, you can hear stray laughter—presumably that of the players in the studio, delighting in what they’re cooking up. The most infectious example comes midway through “East LA"; the music stops for a second, and somebody starts giggling, then cackling, and then singing along. Who can blame him?

-Andy Cush