Mute Forest - Riderstorm

2020 release. There is a moment early on in Riderstorm where a submarine-like pulse swells, then fades into the void. "Truth is a wave," Kael Smith pronounces, "A rave I just can't hear." On Smith's second album under the Mute Forest moniker, truth seems to slip in and out of his hands like a moth. Amongst the album's ten sonically rich and verdant songs produced by Mike Bridavsky (Magnolia Electric Co, Rivulets) these moments of clarity are bountiful; textural brush strokes strip away, the lens focuses in, and with a magnifying glass the listener peers directly into Smith's vulnerability.