For those unfamiliar with the Indiana-based producer’s discography, it’d be easy to file Kinesthetiacamong the glut of post-modern “soundclown” artists. His visual and aural aesthetics certainly seem to fit the bill, sharing PC Music’s penchant for ringtone textures while supplementing his sounds with low-res stock photos. Tracks are uploaded to his homepage at a sporadic rate, often coming in clusters every few months and varying wildly in terms of style and scope. A sound collage culled from Young Thug songs shares space with a chiptune cover of “Linus and Lucy”. Imagined sci-fi scores sit comfortably next to distorted EDM drops inspired by summer camps and The Spiderwick Chronicles.
Clearly, Kinesthetiac has a sense of humor, but he doesn’t lean on the nihilism clung to by his internet kinfolk. Much of what he churns out comes flavor-dusted with the sentimentality that makes home-cooking so comforting — it dares to be sentimental in a way that embraces our transhuman/technological landscape without eschewing the humanity that pulsates beneath. Quick ambient tunes like “Cathartic Reunion” are the best examples of this real-life emotion you can find. The cut in question heaves like a stomach, mid-breath, swelling at the call of reversed vocals that sing out their uhhhs and ahems. Sandwiched in the middle of your Soundcloud feed is a cough, a short pause in the middle of a greater conversation taking place. Maybe it’s waiting in the airport, receiving a text that your friend’s plane just landed and struggling to find just the right emoji to respond with. Maybe it’s just your meditative state between turning the knob and waiting for your shower to warm up — your mind melts into the porcelain. Whatever warmth you can conjure is hidden somewhere in this repetitive synth lilt: not a ghost in the machine but a beating, telltale heart.