LATE ASTER | AMERICAN PANCAKE - REVIEW

Late Aster and the illusory, hallucinogenic "It Never Entered My Mind" (Live- Official Video)

by Robb Donker Curtius

October 2023

Once again I am satiating my need for surreal bending sounds intersecting electronica, post rock and jazz. If you need this kind of drink or pill, then look no further than Late Aster, San Francisco based core musicians Aaron Messing (vocals, keyboards, trumpet) and Anni Hochhalter (vocals, French horn, drum machine) here in collaboration with Brooklyn based musicians Charles Mueller (guitar, bass, audio engineering), and Cameron LeCrone (drums and percussion). The track, this time, is the illusory, "It Never Entered My Mind", a, obtuse pitched pastiche of colliding sonic imagery, like your mind on some mild hallucinogen.

For me, there is a decidedly sci-fi aesthetic in the sound of the pulsating deep synths and fluttering arpeggios and as dreamy vocals flow in eventually crisscrossing there is the sense of memories lapsing or glitching. Halfway through, the jazz flourishes take over and the juxtaposition of what might feel vintage against what might feel futuristic is amazing, transporting in fact. Keep in mind, too that this recording is a live performance, I love knowing that, I want to see it. I tend to associate music with movies because I love both art forms. "It Never Entered My Mind" is lush and beautiful but also has patches of cognitive dissonance, something that would slip perfectly within the emotionally artful futurism like the organic meets future de-constructionism of Gareth Edwards' 'The Creator' or Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'.