Kevin Musliner - Audience

Kevin Musliner

Audience
self-released; 2018

​3.7 out of 5

By Jamie Funk

Kevin Musliner is an artist from Boston, Massachusetts who released an album entitled Audience. Musliner explains “This album is a collection of songs or projects some of which date back to 2015, but all compositions I thought representative of my style.”

​The album gets going with “rush.” I thought the initial instrument sounded a bit like an autoharp. Warm bass and electronic drums and keys come into the mix. The tones and textures are soothing especially in the beginning. A little after the one-minute mark Musliner implements a techno 101 type build which introduces the most exciting and driven part of the song.

“Hold up wait a minute i'm talking to you” starts off an array of tone and textures which feel kind of cuddly. The effect is a little hard to explain but it’s a more experimental track that also felt playful. I really liked it.

“Holidays (crosschord)” is another experimental track. The song seemed to be a little louder than what came before. It sounded like Musliner spliced up guitar chords as well as individual notes to make something slightly quantized and robotic but compelling. He pans individual notes and Musilner really finds something great in the last minute of the song.

“Looking forward” is a little more subterranean and could have been a beat in a hip-hop song while “kerthunk” had more of an 8-bit video game quality to it. “Slip 'n slide” is a success and arguably the most inventive song when it came to the beats which reminded me of Aphex Twin.

“Love (up the beat)” has its moments but it was “vacation (jet warp)” that felt like a disconnected dream in a plastic world. Musliner closes with the “reminder” which contains unique timing and disparate elements.

One thing I would have liked is for Musliner to explore some of these ideas a little more. I felt like some of the songs like “Holidays (crosschord)” were just getting started but would have enjoyed hearing the song go to the five-minute mark or beyond.

Musliner is at his best when he is experimental. There is a good amount of that on this album. Take a listen.

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