With his upcoming debut album Lava Diviner (Truestory) dropping on October 29th, Botany has released “Laughtrack,” a track recorded for the album but deemed outside of the “overall scheme.” Rather than letting the track die on a hard drive, he unleashed it as a free download.
Botany (aka Spencer Stephenson) looses a sonic sound-fall; it’s almost as if something has exploded high overhead, and the pieces—the unassuming bass and muffled percussion—are drifting downward. Tillman’s voice is the perfect counterpoint, providing a landscape for the scene to play out. His voice and lyric narrative make a great spine to stabilize all the ornamental flourishes. The payoff is the expanse of wind chime, sitar-like guitar, and strings that give you a moment repose, a moment to analyze the striking of a perfect balance between seemingly disparate elements. It’s a feat to behold.
