Forgive Yourself by Luxury Noise

In a culture where the constant stream of singles is valued over the full length album, it can be daunting to step out of the direct-to-consumer grind and release a cohesive collection of songs. Producer, guitarist, and electronic musician Luxury Noise, aka Paul Nunn, spent over a year crafting and reworking the songs that would come to form his debut full length album: “forgive yourself”. After moving to the outskirts of town post-pandemic, the Denver-based musician was finally able to take a deep breath and explore new directions in his IDM and vaporwave-inspired music.

The new album does not stray too far from the blissful lo-fi house and cinematic synth work of his previous release "Second Light" but it also incorporates a wider sonic palette of breakbeats and nostalgic instrumentation that pulls from early 2000s IDM, 90s jungle, and 80s house. The euphoric guitar lines of his previous release are replaced with bubbling synth melodies ("feelitmakeit"), wordless pitch-manipulated vocal chops ("Devotional") and saxophone ("onmymind", "Threads"). The melodies are still surrounded by warm pads and reverberating sound design but the rhythms bring a new diversity to twelve song tracklist not seen in his previous work.

Exploring the use of the breakbeat at different tempos- usually slowed down compared to jungle/dnb standards- allows Luxury Noise to give this nostalgic sound new life and wrestle emotions out of the breaks that you wouldn't normally find in rave music. There are still some more straightforward house-style tracks but they are carefully arranged to provide moments of respite and meditation ("Devotional", "Goodbyes"). They stand in contrast to the more maximalist tracks with overdriven drum breaks ("slowbliss"), emotional overtures ('"Big maybes", "Esther"), and liminal glitch pop ("Variable Midlives").

While music of the past inspired the deeper explorations on "forgive yourself", the influence of his collaborators and peers in the Coast2Coast Collective are also evident on the new record. The use of stuttering vocals and snippets of simple, yet emotional, lyrical lines ("Forgive Yourself", "feelitmakeit") recalls a synthesis of his peers Device Operator and patchnotes (aka limerence). The breakbeats and enveloping synthesizers also feel right at home next to the work of vaporwave zero producers like Ahero, Simple Syrup and George Clanton. The internal journey to forgiveness and self-acceptance color this album in a way that isn't downbeat but still feels melancholic. Luxury Noise has opened new doors with the variety of sounds on "forgive yourself" and invites listeners to come with him on this journey of healing...

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