Pastel (L.A.-based Gabriel Brenner) makes music for the days you’re wearing your heart on your sleeve. Sadness is elaborated; the songs become a balm. Compared to the high and dry emotionality of last year’s bone-weary EP, “silhouette” lowers like a storm front. Brenner’s full voice remains the center, but the edges have blurred, like the words that at the same time chase him and fade from view. A bass pulse beats below the surface of synths like music through the floors before everything falls away. Keys answer the faltering noise and turn into an ending made of metal.
absent, just dust explores Brenner’s relationship to his particular Native identity and the persistence of U.S. colonialism. The EP is available for pre-order now, and will be self-released digitally and in an extra-limited run of 20 cassettes on August 25. Half of proceeds will be donated to the Freshet Collective, which provides support to those involved with direct action since the founding of the Sacred Stone Camp. Listen:
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