Open Heart is an ambient/post rock band from Toronto, Canada and City Shapes is an emo/spoken word/ambient band from New Jersey, USA. As a split, this record works so well because the two artists play off of each other in the alternate song order amazingly. Open Heart opens the split with a beautifully simple song that sets a very calm and relaxing mood creating an air ripe for personal reflection. On the next track, City Shapes provides just that, in the form of a song with very minimal musical contributions, allowing the softly sung/spoken word lyrics to shine through, which is good, as these lyrics are poetic, reflective, and just all around beautiful. Following that is another Open Heart song that is a little more active, relying more on the guitar to set the mood rather than the ambiance of the previous track. It reminds me a bit of the Deafheaven instrumental tracks off of Sunbather, which is in no way a bad thing, as those tracks are fantastic and any artist able to create those soundscapes should be proud. Once again this song sets the mood for the City Shapes song perfectly. This City Shapes songs starts as the previous one did, a repetitive, minimal music track under softly sung lyrics filled with personal reflection. This track, however, gains another layer with the addition of a bit of shouting echoing what the lyrics are saying, but not loud enough to distract from the beautiful textures and lyrics set in the foreground.
Free Tunes:
http://cityshapes.bandcamp.com/album/open-heart-city-shapes
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