For the last few years, Milwaukee's Ryan Weber has essentially been a one-man mobile studio, recording and producing using his laptop and whatever other light equipment he can carry with him as he travels the world. Weber tracked his contributions to his most recent album with longtime collaborator Eric Osterman as Eric and Magill, Night Singers, while serving in the Peace Corps in a remote stretch of Kenya, though it's a tribute to both technology and his production chops that casual listeners would never know it wasn't recorded by a full band in the studio.
Recorded primarily in hotel rooms throughout Asia and Africa, Weber's new album under the moniker REW<< is in some ways an even bigger technological feat. Where Eric and Magill's records conjured a full-band sound from piecemeal contributions, Weber's new Departeueres— posted for streaming and name-your-price download today on Bandcamp—does the same without any of those outside contributions: It's entirely a one-man show. Though it doesn't depart too drastically from Eric and Magill's wandering dream-pop, the record has a feel all its own, since its primary dynamic comes not from unexpected voices and collaborators but rather soft, subtle shifts in Weber's production. These concise little songs are continually expanding and contracting, demonstrating how even seemingly minor mixing changes can stir a big emotional impact.
Stream Departeueres below.
