Pressed And

The start to "Pat Pat," Pressed And's opening song of this session makes me think that I've just set myself down in the couch and put on an episode of Entourage, the muted swirling of a storm siren, or an audio taping of the northern lights, or whatever it is, pouring out. Just as quickly, that feeling is dashed, ripped to pieces actually, when the ethereal vocals are punched in. Mat Jones vocal manipulation and sound modulation turns his phrases into all variants of spacey communication from Mars, the smoky pleas of a tripped out Postal Service record that's way more Dntel than Ben Gibbard and repetitive lives that are flares and blown out in all sorts of manners of anguish and ecstasy.

Jones, along with bandmate and North Carolinan college buddy, Andrew Hamlet, string together what sound like calendar days that have amounted to very little and wedded them with some kind of magic touch that turns all of the blankness into passable intrigue. Suddenly, these nothing days, which were spent with the television on, feet up on the sofa and nothing but a frozen pizza to eat are transformed into a soundtrack that's more chillwave bachelor pad-worthy. It's music that should be played in that in-between time between bedtime and whatever might have gotten the blood pressure rising, whatever might have been the last hurrah or last call of the evening.

It's the night ravens gliding in for the night, the owls hooting some and the buzz just hanging around, silently in the darkness. There's little light and there's little light needed to get through these tiny, warm winds. The songs hit like a tuft of feathers, fresh off the body of a dazed bird - perhaps one that's just flown smack into a clean and clear window or one that's drunk itself silly on cider. They hit like the recognition that you've been sitting in one single place for so many hours that you feel dirty for it and yet, what else could you be doing? You think hard and you come up with so little that you feel better and you just keep listening for you find the laziness, the television set, what's left of the drunken bird and these woozy songs amusing and something of a tonic. - Daytrotter

This is definitely one of the most sigularly different albums I’ve come across lately. Operating on peripherals of electronic music, released on Crash Symbols, one of the freshest new cassette labels in the underground US scene (closely affiliated with Holy Page, I suppose), Imbue Up by the mysterious duo Pressed And (Andrew Hamlet & Mat Jones), breaks the borders of electronics psychedelia as most of us heads are used to (usually by the usual, worn out “new psychedelic electronic music = drone” association) by the adventurous, spacious and incredibly engaging combination of chillwave atmospheric and broken dubstep/UK garage beats - something I at this point like to call “chillstep”.

The unassuming and modest album artwork does not reflect the myriad of sounds this cassette offers. It took me a few repeated listens for this tape to click, but finally, upon some fifth or sixth listening, it clicked - and I was absolutely hooked. The opening track, “Fire Shelf”, sounds like something straight outta deep London undergound with a bit more gangsta, laid-back atmosphere added. Echoed and bouncing vocal snippets relieve the tension and the ambient interlude in the beginning sets the relaxing, yet explorative mood to the entire experience. But the high point of Imbue Up is “Etching”, a 7-minute sound journey which begins like your usual Kosmische Musik suspect finally breaking past the trappings of prog electronics and discovering many more genres, adding nearly danceable, stoned beats and beatific washes of heavenly moans into the eclectic mix. Total bliss. Other tracks on the album follow the similar, multi-layered path - bass-driven, melodic, vocal sample filled synthesized zones occupying the space between the beach and the club - sometimes more danceable, sometimes less - like the shortie, but goodie “Soul Muffin”, which just asks for a series of dancey remixes.

I have a feeling (among many others, as quoted on this album’s Bandcamp page), that this duo is destined for greatness. Imbue Up is a cassette that goes far beyond the trappings of both -step and -wave based genres, to create something richer, more spacious, infused with an undeniable ambient legacy. Watch these guys. They are bound to make quite a stir in the electronic scene. - Weed Temple

Swirling and schizophrenic, Pressed And’s mixture of psychedlic tones, big beat drums, and chopped up vocals come together to make a fully-formed brand of post-chillwave that’s both relaxed and imperative. The track perfectly sequences its builds and climaxes, keeping you wrapped in the noise just long enough to fully soak in all the layers before releasing you to prepare for another dip into their dream-like pool of sounds. It’s a sip of your morning coffee… plus a little dose of acid.

Formed at UNC Chapel Hill, Pressed And is the duo of Mat Jones and Andrew Hamlet. After releasing their first material on the split EP with It is rain on my face (Jones’ solo project), the Imbue Up EP followed in November 2011. Met with a great deal of music-blog acclaim, the duo embarked on their first nationwide tour, during which they wrote the material their forthcoming EP, Hyper Thistle, out on July 17th via Mush Records. Save for a handful of New York shows in June, Pressed And don’t have any nationwide dates booked, but you can be the first to know about their next tour by visiting their Facebook or their page at Mush Records. Late last year, they collaborated with video producers for an audio/video extravaganza in Chapel Hill. - KEXP

The Brooklyn-via-North Carolina duo of Andrew Hamlet and Mat Jones (a.k.a. Pressed And) offers up this bit of genre-defiant goodness—encompassing elements of glitch and hip-hop, among a number of other things—from their upcoming EP, Hyper Thistle. Bassy synth squelches and heavily altered vocal samples weave their way in and out of the beat, which marches forward with slamming snares, skittering hi-hats, pounding kicks, and a strange, organ-like sample. While all these different elements may seem a bit jerky at first, they all come together under the track's climax: the introduction of the steady hum of a synth pad that kicks in around the two-minute mark. The track is aptly named; much like a martial arts technique, all the different elements combine to form something that is simultaneously elaborate, graceful, and hard hitting. After checking out "Komuso Flutter Kick IV," keep your eyes peeled for the five-track EP's release on July 17. - XLR8R