Eddie Ruscha is the latest artist to contribute to Ran$om Note’s highly collectable Music To Watch Seeds Grow By  cassette series. Perhaps best known by his Secret Circuit alias, Ruscha has worked in a wide range of genres, often blurring the boundaries between dub, singer / songwriter folk, and kosmische electronica. Released on respected labels such as Invisible Inc., Good Morning Tapes, Emotional Response and Beats In Space, the results are always proper psychedelic. 

His 12 tracks here are a mixture of magical modular synthesis movements and plugged-in pop. The teaser track, Reaching Up, fits into the latter category. Scrunching, crunching, mulching sounds providing the backdrop to a sophisticated arrangement of synthesised strings and music box chimes, while live bass and scratchy, funky rhythm guitar supply the pop part. Further In also bounces on a badass B-line. This one a bit jazzy and accompanied by bubbling percussion and upbeat swells. The track’s machined textures trilling, trebly, happily, warbling and warm. 

Cosmos, My Dear, on the other hand slowly unfurls like a symphonic composition. Ruscha’s strands of synthesis like intertwining vines of classical orchestration and brass. Some frequencies soloing theremin thin. Sky And Hours, similarly, has customised patches that mimic woodwinds and reeds. Computerised copycat oboe and flute that flutter and gurgle as if they themselves are masquerading as assorted wild fauna. Their chirrups and calls sonically sculpting a sense of an unspoiled, secluded space. Like a version of Sergei Prokofiev’s Peter & The Wolf beamed in from an alternate ambient galaxy. The closing Itzalive’s gently gyrating mechanisms then morph in a manner akin to Matthewdavid’s Mycelium Music. Shaping a perfect, sublime score for sprouting shoots and roots seeking and searching out light and nutrients. 

You can order a copy of E Rucha V’s Cosmos directly from Ran$om Note.