Two Steppes/Greyon Greene - split

Released: July 24

This split album marks the first between these two artists and the results are stunningly cohesive, feeling much like one singular album rather than the two distinct albums that feel rather common with some splits. There are, of course notable differences between the two sides - Greyon Greene shows of a bit of his penchant for pronounced rhythms with snappy hits while Two Steppes prefers more washed out textures and drums. What is particularly neat about the first half of this split as it goes into the second is that Two Steppes spent the first couple of tracks establishing a drone meets experimental indie rock kind of vibe with electronic and acoustic sounds, especially on “Big Boobie Number One” which just has an amazing vibe. But then there’s “I Filled the Brownies with Human Teeth,” which they’d all of this away in favor of droning and dissonant electronic noise. It’s a much more abstract approach that what was previous heard but it leads in quite nicely to the second half of the album. 

With the second half orchestrated by Greyon Greene, we slip into some dreamy pads and murky melodies with crisp beats that sit somewhere in between hip-hop and downtempo influence. For “Southern Tier” and “Valley Video,” we have perceived and crispy beats with some nicer ambient pads and even a little vaporwave-adjacent sounds on the latter. Both have a dreamy quality to them, with the beat grounding them from become pure wispy drones and risers. But with the final track, “Ten Years Later,” something peculiar happens. The beats are gone, replaced by the lightest of environmental sounds - soft drips of water, echoey clicks and thuds, and a cycling bit of ambient sound that gives swirling feeling to everything. It’s light and hazy with nostalgic tones and a sense of liminal space about it. It caps things off nicely, almost returning to the hypnotic washed out rhythms of the opening track “Ice Cube Soup.”