The Universe Is Inside My Body’ is a very playful work, dense with ideas that balance traditional harmonic composition with algorithmic or generative processes. Shmu (aka LA based artist Samuel Chown) states his goal as trying to make organic feeling music that is influenced and contains non-organic sounds and methods. The result is not overly-heavy, instead adopting a light touch with brisk musical movements and many wild harmonic choices that don’t entirely settle into consonance or dissonance. It feels like an artist excited to be trying new things; Sam says it’s his first album without his usual drum and vocal instrumentation, and a chance to experiment in a more digital workspace.
You could also describe these new pieces visually as explorations or deconstructions of imagined environments, so as you listen think of water & amusement parks, fast pace city-scapes, and abstract video game-inspired landscapes, like 3D and 2D scrolls through candy castles, hedge fields, ice structures, laser zones, etc.
TUIIMB is available now, exclusively from Orange Milk Records here.