NorthSouthSea - VISUALSNOW

 Released: July 16

Throughout this first EP of 2026 from St. Louis-based NorthSouthSea, there’s a certain pattern that seems to emerge. Each track, save for a couple, begins with a single pad like element that slowly expands and drifts about the soundspace, setting a foggy atmosphere. Once it has established itself, fully enveloping the space and setting an atmosphere, another element comes along whose purpose it is to disturb this atmosphere. In our opening track, “norma jean rockwell,” the track opens subtly, with an airy tone. Then these little distorted plinks come in slowly to add a bit of noise into this freshly drawn space, like footprints disturbing an otherwise pristine fresh snowfall. It feels oddly serene while prodding gently at that serenity the whole time. 

On “majapahit,” this dynamic sort of flips as it begins with deep rumblings and bits of distortion. Then those repeating delayed keys that NorthSouthSea seems somewhat fond of come in slowly and are partially consumed by a bitcrusher, degrading the atmosphere by proxy. Coming to the final two tracks, “erasing(-)” and “creating(+),” the mood stays the same but the atmosphere becomes decidedly more minimal. The former comes in softly at first then rapidly becomes louder, hitting its crescendo early and then letting the ending meander towards a slowly decaying fade with the already vague structure of the piece. The latter largely follows this pattern with the crescendo happening later on and these wonderful echoes of it persisting longer. The whole album just has this air of peaceful decay that comes through quite frequently, though it is put to a fine point with the final note fading away slowly.