Foxhill Pastels by Milieu

Foxhill Pastels collects the 2005 EPs Simple Stations Repeat and Giants In The Desert, both recorded at Foxhill, deep in the Columbian country. In many ways, these twenty tracks are emblematic of early period Milieu in ways none of the albums are - they are overly melodic, naively filled with weird dialogue samples and detuned to the point of near-nausea. Many of the tracks have since become associated with specific people and events, such as Ten and Tracer detailing a romantic mountain hike with wine, "Walking Pastels" and his girlfriend, or Eric Lee confessing that "My Shiny Sunday" is still his all-time favorite Milieu track. There are obvious references to the things I was emulating at that point in time - Freescha, Boards of Canada, Am-Boy, Ten and Tracer. Everything feels very off the cuff to me, listening to it now, which is perhaps owed somewhat to the fact that both EPs were created in under a week for two different online release events called Project 168. For completion's sake, I've also included the live version of "Dream From Above Houses", from Brother, which was remodelled for a live performance in Cayce, in February 2006. It is an appropriate segue between the more traditional Milieu of Simple Stations Repeat and the textural, dusky ambient weirdness that is Giants In The Desert. The two EPs are almost miniature mirror images of Aurora Borealis and Night Currents, the day and night brother-sister albums that would follow at U-Cover later in 2005 and 2006, making this set a fascinating little curio. For this collection, I've remastered Simple Stations Repeat from the original master tracks, but I've chosen to leave Giants In The Desert undisturbed, mostly because it's such a texturally specific suite of work and I'm honestly surprised at how nice it still sounds to me now. Hopefully, you're able to enjoy this little jaunt down that country dirt road as much as I have.

Tracklist

1.	Readytone	0:55

2.	In The Back Of A Car, With Your Head In The Stars	4:57

3.	Green Summer	1:04

4.	We Swam	4:26

5.	Walking Pastels	6:11

6.	Cumulus Drones	4:49

7.	Soft Screen Report	1:00

8.	My Shiny Sunday	6:55

9.	Simple Stations Repeat	1:57

10.	Dream From Above Houses [Live Remodel]	11:39

11.	Morning In The Base Of The Ravine	1:51

12.	Yellow Hymn	4:31

13.	Desert Wind	1:06

14.	Where Mountains Once Stood	3:53

15.	Obelisk	1:05

16.	Pillars	1:59

17.	Fossil Hum	3:48

18.	The Visitors	1:48

19.	Desert Drone	4:41

20.	U.A.U.	4:05

Credits

released October 1, 2015

W/P by Brian Grainger. Recorded at Foxhill, 2005-2006. Tracks #1-10 remastered by The Analog Botanist at Botany Bay, September 2015. Photograph taken by Brian at Foxhill, 2006. This is Milieu Music number AD20, and 20th in the Arboreal Digest reissue catalog.

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