Painting a fun but altogether chilling atmosphere with this smart uptempo tune is musicmaking maestro (officially composer and sound designer) Lindsay Lowend. 'Downtown Mannequin' combines clever composition with various instruments and a driving disco feel, not only allowing you to skim on its surface as if it were a videogame soundtrack – not unlike Lowend, what with his 2013 VGM-inspired Wind Fish EP, and much SoundCloud output since then – but also allowing a deeper experience for the cavernous imagination.
Popping boppity beeps provide their subtle jolts throughout, these staccato patterns bouncing along from start to finish, the pixel canvas on which is strewn moody synth strings and atonal chords like shimmering shards of light striking here and there, muted lightning, and icy sparkling notes played in exotic scales. Later a crazed march of acidy synth joins in, squelching and whipping along with the skitter of the beat: it all feels like the frenzy of shopping.
Yes combined with the title, this track with its frosty yet happy-go-lucky physique, its excited but frenetic ticking percussion, presents the clean lines chrome and glass sheen of a high-end future shopping experience, the frantic bustle of shoppers, the gleam of expensive new items on display and out of reach, overwhelming. And how some sounds jar and jut out, subtle sideswipes at the expected tinny emptiness of the track—the mind assaulted the sensory overload; and how the string parts, soft and sensitive, play bravely in the whirl of confusion. Modern day consumerism with the gloss of superficiality draped over true troubled feelings boiling below.
- 'Downtown Mannequin' does not appear to be part of any release, but like almost all of Lindsay Lowend's music it can be downloaded for free. You will also notice that comments are disabled and numbers of likes/plays are hidden for pretty much all his tracks.
- You should also check out LL's Vimeo, where musicmaking meets the wholly practicable art-science of sound design under his real name, Tony Mendez.
☟ Lindsay Lowend Internet Presence ☟ Facebook • SoundCloud • Twitter • Vimeo
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