Introducing: Ambassador Engine

13 Jul 2010 — NFOP

Greeley, Colorado is probably the most boring town on Planet Earth. Of course I'd never arrogate to make such judgments, however, this is more or less what Aaron Landgraf suggests when talking about his hometown. Apparently, the best thing about this settlement is its proximity to Fort Collins, home of the Act So Big Forest collective and Matthew Sage's delightful Patient Sounds label, so Aaron could at least find a base to channel his musical talent and his longing for his own creative expressions. Under the moniker Ambassador Engine, he makes beautiful bedroom pop that differs significantly from his many contemporaries in its pretty experimental approach towards the use of computers, which means that in this case, computer-generated sounds may actually sound like exactly what they are and are not merely a means to let the tune appear more nostalgic or, sorry, washed-out. This fact becomes most obvious as regards the computer voice in his latest track Destroy Everything, something that we haven't heard in this straightforwardness since Radiohead's Fitter Happier (though we admit that we might have missed something). Also, though Ambassador Engine is all about ambient downtempo soundscapes meandering through your head, there are no chillwaves to be ridden as the tunes' tranquility regularly gets interrupted by rather unwieldy rhythm sections.

Ambassador Engine's Live Dismally EP (featuring Live Hopeful) is available for free download here. Nowhere Near the Beach has appeared on the before mentioned essential Patient Sounds Sampler V.1, and Destroy Everything will probably be one of the tunes on Aaron's first full length, hopefully due later this year.

Ambassador Engine - Destroy Everything

Ambassador Engine - Live Hopeful

Ambassador Engine - Nowhere Near the Beach