No one, no one, no one can get in the way of what I’m feeling* when I listen to ambient electronic music – it’s bliss. If you haven’t already picked up on the rather explicit pun, you will now when I introduce you to the Sydney based band NOWON and Gradon’s new solo electronic project under the moniker, Bliss Fool.
Charlie Gradon’s solo project Bliss Fool makes a promising debut with Obscuro – a track that will take you on a journey across the high seas.
Obscuro is Bliss Fool’s debut single and what an entrance it has made on the electronic music scene. “Obscure” similar to “obscuro” is the word that perfectly encapsulates ambient music if it was the first time you experienced it. When you grow fond of this genre, the next word that quickly comes to mind is “bliss” (I don’t know if you realise this Bliss Fool, but you are a genius- a master of puns and finding spot on words to describe music).
From the very beginning you will not only hear, but also witness with your very eyes, a tragic tale of survival as a man battles the elements. You will surely to asking “But how Jen? All I have in front of me is your article, how can I witness this story you are speaking so highly of?”. Well metaphorically speaking, if you just look at the song’s Soundcloud music visualisation (below) and consider the following story, everything will make sense**. It must be the sounds of the ocean that gives me this impression.
For all intents and purposes let’s assume this person is a man, perhaps it is Charlie himself. The very first beat sees this intense and tentative rise to the cliff’s edge before he jumps off into the ocean, where he must battle it out in the hostile and brutal ocean – surging waves continue to drown him rather than keeping him afloat.
Once this man makes it on shore, the struggle for survival only escalates –he may be grounded on land, but his life is in no way safe. Now what happens at the end of this dramatic story…we might never know because the beat simply comes to an end.
Obscuro is tumultuous and very temperamental – the unrelenting beats fight it out for center stage in a playfully magnetizing manner. The beats create a complex story fraught with contrasting battles of night and day, peace and anxiety, love and hate – this track covers many emotions across the spectrum and reaches various levels on the Richter scale as beats drop below the subterranean and elevate up to the sky before plummeting into nothingness.
The vocals which play a very small but vital role in the song are muffled, like a monster menacingly lurking behind a façade of innocence – it endeavours to force its way through but it constantly knocked back.
Bliss Fool has gone through various stages of the musical metamorphosis cycle before reaching this point. From his humble beginnings as a bedroom producer by his original name of Charlie Gradon, he produced an EP entitled Hiss (listen to the beautiful folk track Murderer of Dreams). Phase two of his musical conquering is the project of NOWON (collaboration between two Sydney musician/ producers, Owen Redmond (aka Oedura) and Charlie Gradon), who produce similar ambient music as Bliss Fool.
What will Charlie Gradon do next? Stay tuned on Happy.
*Alicia Keys for those that didn’t already figure it out!
**If it doesn’t then please direct your complaints to [email protected]
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