Six O'Matic

On his new album Aging (Wild Kindness), Pittsburgh producer Six O’Matic trades the jaunty psych rock of his 2018 debut for glacial, unfurling waves of ambient melody and sound.
There are some musical styles that can be difficult to write about. Ambient is one of those styles; after all, how is someone supposed to come up with words to describe a piece of music that genre pioneer Brian Eno once wrote should be “as ignorable as it is interesting?” Drone can also be tricky because of the music’s emphasis on repetition and single notes stretched out like silly putty. Six O’Matic’s Aging draws from both styles, so I was wracked with anxiety as I considered the prospect of writing about the album. Soon, though, I was calmed by the austere elegance of the music; even the tracks that feature harsh textures or dissonant melodies manage to wall off the rest of the world and isolate the listener within a distinct sonic space. The sounds themselves might be strange or unnerving at first, but without outside context to define them, they exist on their own terms. It’s like looking at a dilapidated concrete wall while practicing mindfulness; the object is beautiful because it is there and because it is itself. Listening to the track “Shine” feels like watching the sun rise over Jupiter; the strumming of a single acoustic guitar, buried low in the mix, is overlaid by brilliant swells of melody that swirl like clouds of planetary gas, while a chorus of digital blips mimics a flock of alien birds approaching over the horizon. “Shine,” like any good drone or ambient track, completely immerses its listener in sound; it’s interesting, but certainly not ignorable.

Check out more from Six O’Matic and from Wild Kindness - Bored in Pittsburgh

The mysterious Six O’Matic has been playing the Scottish great highland bagpipes for over three decades. A Misnomered Pipe’s Dream is an upcoming EP release that combines this instrument with synth, electronics, and subtle percussion to formulate slightly more than 20 minutes of bright drones and shimmering atmospherics.

While the bagpipes are multiphonic and often discordant, the overall feel of the album is ambient verging on new age in nature. Each track appears to be largely composed and consists of numerous overlapping layers. Indeed, the pipes and synth often merge to the point that they can be difficult to distinguish from one another.

While not in any particular hurry, these pieces are mostly 4-5 minutes long, making a statement and moving on. Echoing and oscillations abound with cyclic patterns of notes. As a result, there is a minimalistic character herein, yet the album does not cleanly fit into this or any other category mentioned.

A Misnomered Pipe’s Dream will be released on April 21. - Avant Music News

SIX O’MATIC – A MISNOMERED PIPE’S DREAM Also on Spotify
And while on the subject of bagpipes, we might as well check out this unusual release by Six O’Matic – a somewhat enigmatic and mysterious musician from Pittsburgh. His catalog covers all kinds of styles: ‘from ambient to Appalachian, from silly to psychedelic’.

‘For more than 25 years he’s been exploring the sounds in his head before they escape forever’. Besides, he has played the Scottish great highland bagpipe for more than 35 years.

In his own words, A Misnomered Pipe’s Dream is ‘the ambient bagpipe album nobody asked for […] and nobody realized they needed to hear’.
On the short (22 minute) 5-track album he plays acoustic and electronic bagpipes, combined with synths and electronics. He blends experimental and improvisational methods to create these tracks, which also mean that the music is less rooted in the traditional Scottish culture compared to Brìghde Chaimbeul’s album mentioned above. It may come from a different angle, but it’s just as much fun to listen to! - Ambientblog.Net