Album Review/ Electronica : Johnno Casson’s ‘Soft Lad’
Johnno Casson is a modern electronic artist with an experimental spirit. He’s a Hackney born producer and composer, who creates songs that have free atmospheres. Moods that transcend the common and the conventional. It’s wild country out there and Johnno just chronicles and elevates it. His latest release is the ‘Soft Lad’ album, a collection of immersive, reflective compositions contained in expansive soundscapes. As you listen to the album, the stylistic essence of it starts to feel limitless of sorts. Nothing is off bounds for this artist. Everything is fair game and he’s here to play, mix and find new profiles.
The album starts with ‘The Simplest Things’, an interlude. A faint sound sample that sets the context for the album. ‘Too Many Snakes in the Long Grass’ follows with its drum n bass grooves. It is mellow, unanchored and presents a wilderness that mirrors human nature in many ways. Interpretation will take you to interesting places, especially with this track. It’s just ambiguous enough to keep your interest and feed your curiosity. ‘Some Days’ follows in the same vein. An off beat reflection plays out in the vocals. Around it, wiry minimalistic grooves form and take shape.
We start seeing more layers in tracks like ‘You Played a Good Game’ and ‘Sometimes I Fade’. If the first two tracks were pleasantly obscure, these tracks have melodic elements that forges a deeper ambience into the soundscapes.
In tracks like ‘Make it all Go Away’ and ‘Want Love’, you’ll see the extempo format again. The spontaneity in the unpredictable rhythm patterns and the casual chaos in the melody/ beat moments. We see Latin blues motifs and some jazz as well. These genres are known for their ability to emulate the mercurial tides of human emotion. He involves them into his soundscape and style with such a seamless and smooth vision.
‘Panama’ and ‘Progress’ are two tracks that set their own format. The former track showcases diverse influences, forming in acts, with vivid and varied stylistic frames. Darting from ambient to distorted pop, electronic fusion, to blues, to theatric jazz and many more. The latter has a little bit of a dissonant sound with slanting tangents and sound samples of flowing water. It’s a lot of textural play that makes up the song and its atmosphere. It’s quite interesting as it keeps progressing to the next part of the continuum.
So many musical variations in this album, all new and novel. Conceived by the artist as a love letter to musical exploration and experiment. And like any affecting love letter, it is thoughtful, revealing and full of expression. Listen Now!
Check out their Instagram, Facebook!
The album is available for streaming on popular sites like Spotify, Apple Music, YouTube Music, and Amazon Music!
You can listen to ‘Soft Lad’ by Johnno Casson aka Snippet here -
