I’ve found a fresh release for you, so intimate and deep that it breaks through the four walls of your room and transports you to a completely different dimension. I want to talk about the track «Coral Reef Village» by the American producer Neologisticism, who once again proves that lo-fi has limitless horizons.
The track is similar to chillwave and sounds like an aquatorium of magic. Pay attention to the arpeggios: they are saturated with reverb, and their short but bright phrases create not just music, but an enchanted shimmer. It’s like sunlight piercing through a thick layer of water and playing on the walls of an underwater cave. In synergy with the soft synths, it gives rise to a feeling of weightlessness.
But despite all this ethereality, Neologisticism remains true to the lo-fi aesthetic. The drum part is its anchor, keeping us on the surface of the genre: slow but stable rhythms, slightly deformed, with the nostalgic flavour of old cassette noise. It’s like the barely audible crunch of sand under your feet as you walk along an endless shore.
After a true musical catharsis, around the 1:40 mark, the track unexpectedly pauses, giving us time to organize the pleasant emotions. And when the beat returns, the synthesizer becomes sharper, more resonant. It seems to gather even more emotion, even while repeating familiar motifs. It resembles the energy of the sea element gaining strength.
The title and cover unequivocally hint at the underwater world. And it’s a brilliant decision to use chillwave as the foundation for a marine theme. After all, these almost cosmic sounds are perfectly suited to describe the Ocean. Because, like space, it is a completely different, not fully explored world for us. It raises a million questions, but even more — awe. Awe at its power, at the diversity of life forms. And «Coral Reef Village» conveyed all these feelings with such sincerity that you can literally smell the salty air of the sea.
P.S. If you love Neologisticism’s world-building, check out our review of his other cinematic piece: “Samurai of Old Neo Tokyo.” Read more here.
