FWY! “Garden Grove” & “Any Exit (Anywhere)”

I felt like the San Clemente CS recorded by San Fran synth explorer FWY!(aka Edmund Xavier) was one that both myself and the larger music audience overlooked when it dropped on Moon Glyph last year. It was a subtle tape that, when pulled from my shelf upon seeing he was releasing a new CS Any Exit, again with Moon Glyph, instantly soaked back into my concise. It was a coy record, an easy to like collection of sunny and fluid sound collages that rode on the back of richly melodic synths. From the first taste of his new work, heard below via the tracks “Garden Grove” & “Any Exit (Anywhere),” Xavier has found a way to enriched and expanded his already colorful pallet. The former is a lucid track, cresting on a wave of a crisp kick drum, that conjures up a front row seat at the ocean (especially in conjunction with the effusive album cover). It is an emotive track that shows the depth a song can go without having to commandeer the listeners experience with lyrics. The later is a more subdued, introspective track that could get lost in the haze, but still shows Xavier’s capacity to create rich webs of sound, even at a less vibrant pace. Both are part of a CS that is complex without being distant and comely without lacking in the textures needed to bring life to an instrumental synth record. Any Exit is a great tape that, in addition to serving as an excellent soundtrack to a warm(ish) spring day where the sun was melting away our winter doldrums, helped bring me back to Xavier’s previous work. Both deserve your attention and both can be previewed and purchased from the very fine folks at Moon Glyph HERE.

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