By Keith Walsh
Mei Wong, aka The Analog Girl, is up to something. Starting in February (on Valentine’s Day, to be precise) she’s been rolling out occasional singles from an upcoming mini album titled Equinox. These tunes are decidedly minimalistic, with a simplistic approach to composition that puts them squarely in the experimental category.
The latest is “Reverie,” which never leaves the key of A for the entirety of its nearly four minutes. It’s as sweet and simple as the artificially created, psychedelic, fetishized candy graphics of the accompanying video. It also features some cool minimalist synth solos that might have made the guys from Kraftwerk blush in their heyday.
The first release of this set, on Valentines Day as previously mentioned, was “Phases.” As The Analog Girl told me in an interview, it was inspired by the singer/songwriter era of the 1970s, but clearly transformed into a downtempo electronic ballad from her studio in Singapore. Then in March, she released the second single from this set “Zodiac,” with a kind of new age vibe, with synth bells and a lead synth tuned to the interval of a fifth.
I’ve listened to the entire catalog of The Analog Girl, starting with her 2005 debut album, The TV Is On, and I’m thinking that Zodiac is one of the few instrumental songs of hers, aside from an entire reworking of her 2020 album Awe. The new tunes are decidedly continuing the downbeat vibe of her recent work, though leaning more towards minimalism rather than lush polyphony. With a concept like Equinox setting the agenda, we can only imagine where she will take us next.
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