Little label Rotifer has been quietly releasing cassettes since 2009, and bllop happens to be their 98th. In contempt of the condemnation from old people media, who can’t seem to conceive that we reprehensible millennials could be interested in analog media, the revival of the cassette has allowed established acts and bedroom musicians alike to disseminate their sounds into the physical realm. Julia Bloop is one of those musicians.
Brooklyn’s Julia Bloop is cinematic, dreamlike, nostalgic: the most obvious descriptor that comes to mind is “ambient”. But unlike most ambient music, this release feels acutely organic, a compost pile of samples and sounds, consisting of an unceasing stream of gentle synths and looped bird sounds (and occasional drums, dogs, and oceanic waves). The grand piano melodies and the pop-hiss of analog sound definitely evoke something like 2011’s An Empty Bliss… by The Caretaker. The release is overall a pleasant, cohesive listen that I’d imagine sounds appropriately pleasant on tape — you can stream the entirety of bllop on Bandcamp too. And, if you’re interested in cassettes, Rotifer is a great tape label to explore.
