Golden Donna

Golden Donna

II

100% Silk

Madisonian synthesizer omnivore follows the trippy club-crunched double helixes of his recent split 12 on Atlanta's burgeoning CGI imprint with a 7-song skybath of breezy balcony themes, trap-flecked trampoline electronics, pale dream-pitched slow-rides, and diamond-headed aerodynamics for SILK's subliminal magnetic tape division. There's a consistent looking-glass curvature to the way he bends textures and percussion, giving them this lens flare plasticity, like a warped sheen of translucent plastic. Dense but dispersed, II pushes past his debut into higher altitude airspace, towards warmer climes. A uniquely hardwired hanging garden of hibernation strategies from a voracious jammer locked in the lair of midwestern winter. Mastered by Ghost Sounds. Hand-numbered edition of 100.

Golden Donna

S/t

Not Not Fun

Madison’s insular lineage of sonic reducers replenishes at an impressive clip, so it’s both no surprise as well as a real treat to offer up the debut LP by one of the city’s freshest next-wave arc welders, Golden Donna. The solo soundworld of instrumental synthesist Joel Shanahan, GD incorporates a drained rainbow of niche hues into its multiverse: tranced sequencer constructs (“Shifter”), solar flare R&B (“Paulding Light”), glittering deep-space isolationist drift (“Infinite Earths,” “Flashing Hands Of Carousel”). The interplay of smooth rhythm and ambient body awareness tone-float gives the record a woozy in-and-out-of-focus quality, like coasting through clouds on codeine on a private jet. Grab a window seat. Recorded at Babe Lair in Madison, WI, Autumn 2011. Black vinyl LPs in smeared city skyline hieroglyph jackets designed by Brave Mysteries CEO Nate Ritter.