More Than Anything by Varsity Star

Varsity Star is an electronic musician and upright bassist who grew up in Boston and spent time playing with various bands as a multi-genre sideman. After deciding to go it alone and produce music on a synth and Ableton, he had a spell living in Berlin. Now back in Brooklyn, he has become a prolific artist who, in just a couple of years, has put out various singles, remixes, and LPs. As a programmer by day, he has put together high spec live shows involving 3D printers, soldering together LEDs, and writing his own programs that read Ableton and output light patterns, he is a truly creative mind.

There is a soft and warm late-night melodic glow to the beautiful opening ambiance of "Christmas Lights" which then makes way for the prickly live drums of "Mixtape". Littered with off-grid hits and detuned synth sounds, it's a modern and electronic take on jazz that is deeply absorbing. "Bedroom" is a gorgeous affair that floats on airy pads and scuffed up, organic drum sounds while the most innocent of melodies play out.

The brilliant "Windchimes" sounds like an electronic version of exactly that - melodic pulses bleeping, looping, overlapping as if disturbed by a gentle forest breeze. There are crisp breakbeats and more pensive, reflective chords on "Summer" while "Playground" is a heartbreaking piano interlude. 'Pipes' is built on a skeletal rhythm that bristles with hits, loops, glitches, and uplifting melodic phrases, changing pace and weight as it goes. The penultimate offering "Townie Rainforest Exhibit" is a soothing, brain cleansing melodic exploration with more lush sequences and stepping bass notes that take you ever higher and "LED" closes out with a scuffed up garage rhythm and cathartic harmonies that leave you in a daydream.

Varsity Star - More Than Anything
Release Date November 2021
Label Small Pond Records

Tracklist
1. Christmas Lights
2. Mixtape
3. Bedroom
4. Windchimes
5. Summer
6. Playground
7. Pipes
8. Townie Rainforest Exhibit
9. LED