High-Beta, the solo moniker of Manchester-Leeds-based producer James Bebbington, poured celestial introspection into lo-fi electronica with Sky in the Absence of Ground. Lifted from the newly released LP Under Streetlights, which officially landed on June 6th, the track threads retro textures into a spatial meditation that defies weight and structure, both sonically and thematically.
The title alone reads like a line stripped from a Sylvia Plath verse, but the weight of the sentiment doesn’t drift unanchored. Bebbington instils meaning with every progression. His decision to forgo emotive restraint results in a vocal performance that invites the listener into the raw nerve of the track’s core. The harmonies hang in a state of arrest, teetering between the comfort of familiarity and the disorientation of cosmic detachment.
With High-Beta’s signature minimalism acting as an emotional accelerant, the lo-fi aesthetic never overshadows the intent. Instead, it creates a porous membrane through which vulnerability seeps, saturating the keys with aching sincerity. There’s a nostalgic ache in the melodic resolve, yet it avoids indulgence.
High-Beta offers more than sound; this is a broadcast from a psychological and emotional elsewhere, an aural artefact transmitting what remains in the air when the certainties of gravity collapse.
Discover High-Beta on Bandcamp and Instagram.
Review by Amelia Vandergast
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