Album, Single and EP Reviews


 

 

  Distract'd by a Kaleidoscope Salesman by Spirit Radio


Distract'd by a Kaleidoscope Salesman cover art

Artist: Spirit Radio
Title: Distract'd by a Kaleidoscope Salesman
Catalogue Number: Editions Vaché
Review Format: Download
Release Year: 2024



I like mainstream music. I worship, for example, Sabrina Carpenter and Kacey Musgraves but, sometimes, you have to stretch your ears and take a walk down the esoteric street. Esoteric is as esoteric does and a worthy example of that would be “Distract'd by a Kaleidoscope Salesman” by Spirit Radio.

Spirit Radio - Stephen Spera and Tamalyn Miller – are purveyors of the nonstandard and, through sound bites and repetition, from little much is made. “Distract'd by a Kaleidoscope Salesman” is most definitely a listening with closed eyes kind of album with whispering voices, voices in the distance, voices detached from this reality, sequenced loops and a horsehair fiddle combining into a curiously affecting soundscape that makes your ears believe they are listening to a concerto formed from the echoes in a canyon.

Hey, when all is said and done, it’s all about the ambience and that, in consequence, makes all that your hear seem somewhat otherworldly like little fragments of reality trapped forever in one of those dreams that you think you remember having with the haunting interludes of Tamalyn Miller’s voice being not so much a weapon to deliver a lyrical message but more of a counterpoint to the shards of conventionality joined together to make a musical interlude that becomes more targeted than its rambling, sometimes unfocused, presentation might initially suggest.

If you ever wondered what an eternity of the ethereal would sound like then Spirit Radio have the answer for you.

Available from Bandcamp and the usual digital sources.


www.instagram.com/spiritradiomusic
Reviewer:
Review Date: September 29 2024