stag hare – crystal, dust, magic

Carried from the dead of night through the wilderness hours to the breaking morning, Stag Hare makes music for torchlights and campfires, when hours are elongated and the darkness drifts towards a distant half-light. The sound is immersive – a succession of cushioned tribal beats and heaped up synths blossoming. Stag Hare’s real name is Garrick, and he’s currently playing a succession of dates all over CA with 60 Watt Kid and Talibam, to be followed by a string of shows with Kerkagram across the States, before heading over Europe way in the springtime.

Stag Hare’s aural success lies in persistence and stamina, coupled with sufficient decoration and painterly touches to immerse. The tracks are centred around kaleidoscopic early Terry Riley style synths, drawn out into colourful drones (my fave), woven into rhytmic structure: tribal rhythms beaten on hollow skins with bare hands. These are good basics, which have complemented one another in countless recordings before, and yet they can also easily become ragga-boring, the sound of smoking too much weed and staying up all night. 

The trick is to get to the bottom of what made Terry’s best: trace a path through the forest of organic beats and primordial electronics, immersing and enveloping the listener. Stag Hare does this with finesse – details are picked out in instrumental meanders and thickets of headier drones. Crystal Dust Dream’s splash of colour comes from a harmonica prancing around tunefully but without melody, and doubled up echoes of wordless chorus. Born Into Magic’s is a gulping hand drum and myriad drifting voices.

Stag Hare – Crystal Dust Dream

Stag Hare – Born Into Magic

There’ll be a new album out late spring, early summer time, called Rainbow Dreamcatcher Music. Other records can be bought direct from the artist on myspace.