As someone who was been born and bred in Pennsylvania, I officially renounce my faith in the opinion that the East Coast is the best coast. My new goal in life-move to California, learn to surf, and live a life full of sandy beaches, relaxation, and pure bliss. Where has this change of heart come from? Listening to guitarist/producer Erik Tokle’s “surf ambient” EP, “The Golden Breed,” had the ability to place me into a minor meditative state while attempting to write this review.
Tokle not only creates ambient tracks, which are not really “songs” per say but are more like “contemplative soundscapes describing a specific environment and a specific mood,” through meditative and dreamlike states, but he also performs with There Is No Teenage Love and Whale Fall. However, “The Golden Breed” is Tokle’s solo project. It cannot be totally described and understoond until you listen for yourself. Tokle recorded all six tracks over the last year-completely improvised with “minimal-to-no overdubs and almost no post-processing.” Listening to any of the tracks allows a trance-like-state-of-mind to take over. This begins the process of placing the mind in a relaxing claw-foot tub of Southern Californian blissfulness. “The Golden Breed,” was developed to a certain extent to bring back anyone listening to “an elegy, a memory, a faded hymn to the dreams of perfection,” which has been created by cultures (mostly surf cultures) before our time.
“The Golden Breed”, released on July 31, 2013 through Minor Sphere Records and There Is No Teenage Love, includes six tracks with titles that help to envision what Tokle was aiming for: “Santa Monica Airlines”, “Summersmoke” (take this whichever way you would like), and “The Golden Lights” just to name a few. Since I have never been to Los Angeles or to the state of California for that matter, I can only imagine the serenity and total awe-inspiring feeling of waking up early, sitting on an enclosed porch with a cup of coffee, looking over the Pacific Ocean. Being able to envision a scene like this, while listening to any track on “The Golden Breed,” is exactly the purpose of this particular EP.
“The Golden Breed” should be on the top of your upcoming shopping list-whether you are avid into meditation, yoga, writing, and/or taking bubble baths, or if you are a student working on a film project needing an inspirational, atmospheric soundtrack-this EP will get the job done. Go fourth, buy, download, and enjoy a nice, relaxing, stretch on the beaches of your mind.
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