Melaina Kol's 'Okay that's a great idea because if I do that then' Builds a Sound Bath Out of Harp, Cello and an MPC
Logan Hornyak has been rebuilding Melaina Kol from the ground up for years, and Okay that’s a great idea because if I do that then is the record where the reconstruction pays off. In a Bandcamp Daily feature, Nick DeMasi traces the arc: this is Hornyak’s fourth official LP and his first for the Philadelphia DIY label Julia’s War Recordings, and its “beguiling storm of spindly string instruments and bubbling vocal chops” stands “a far cry from the stripped-back, claustrophobic guitar songs of his early years and the glitchy indietronica of his two most recent records.”
The Sonic Breakdown
The Production & Mix
The Low-End: Everything here is anchored to a pulse borrowed from house music — Hornyak’s own Bandcamp notes describe classical instruments “chopped, looped and layered around a rhythmic pulse.” That pulse is what keeps “Bleater” and “Parallel” from floating off. The low end is a metronome with the lights off.
The Spatial Dynamics: He plays harp and cello, both taught to himself over four years, both played with a finger-plucking pizzicato attack, and both fed into a laptop and an MPC. The result, per DeMasi, “resembles a collage, but one that’s practically impossible to separate back into its disparate parts because they’ve been so inextricably wound together” — which is exactly right. You can hear a string being plucked and still not locate it.
Standout Performance
Olivia O. of Lowertown, who sings on the title track and whose vocal stems get chopped into texture across the rest of the record. She is credited as a guest and functions as an instrument, which is the most generous thing you can do with a collaborator’s voice.
Why It’s Certified
“Lifeheart” and “Idola” are the record’s warmest stretch; “Minuet” is where the classical training shows its teeth; “ili” closes without resolving anything, correctly. DeMasi reaches for Rachika Nayar’s fragments as a touchstone — “a whorling ambient sound bath” built from minimal loops “to a similar effect” — and that is high company for a fourth album on a tiny label. Certified great.