Stranded

Stranded

Velvet Trace

Grey Market Records

***Velvet Trace is the most lush, immersive, and dynamic release David Mansfield’s given us yet. The project remains an outlet for Mansfield to look at the genres that made him, collapsing whole histories of (often English) alternative music together and turning them over in new light. He gave Artaud reference points like Clinic and nods to the Walkmen’s penchant for spinning a story, but what still comes through is Manfield’s core DNA — the autumnal drama of the Cure and Echo & The Bunnymen, here more romantic, haunting, and grandiose than on any preceding Stranded release. There’s a muscularity in the throb of “Burnt Offerings,” the rush of “Static Lights,” the late night pulse of “Awake,” the climactic release of “Aftermath” — but within Stranded’s newly dense array of sounds, Mansfield is chasing fragments of memories, the immediacy of the music keeping things just grounded enough so he can run off into the ether. “I might take a moment, a slight memory, an image from that, and then build from it,” he says of his writing process. Some of Velvet Trace, like the gorgeously vaporous “Broken Circles,” reflects on getting back together with and eventually marrying his high school sweetheart. But he extrapolates out from that, offering few literal scenes and instead evocations. That’s how he defines the title Velvet Trace: “something softly holding in place, a memory, a fleeting emotion.” Between the swirling atmospherics of the music and Mansfield’s allusive words, he’s given us a space to get lost...

Stranded

Midnight Sun

Double Phantom

***"Following a string of boisterous post-punk and dance EPs, Stranded (aka Atlanta-based artist and producer David Mansfield) is back with his first full-length, Midnight Sun. The album also marks the relaunch of Double Phantom Records, Mansfield’s underground label, which has released music from Atlanta bands like Algiers, Balkans and Carnivores. Celine’s Dilemma, his first EP as Stranded, arrived in 2018, which was followed by a pair of EPs in 2020, Long Dusk and Post Meridian. The trio of EPs traverse house, disco and post-punk, emitting both joy and agitation as their dissonant instrumental layers snake in and out of one another. Midnight Sun is a bit of a departure from these dense electronic collages, opting instead for a guitar-based sound, which results in Stranded’s most straightforward release yet. But Stranded hasn’t abandoned his left-field quirks or broad influences—his rhythm-driven post-punk still folds in dance-inflected beats, bubbling synth tones and cold vocals. Perhaps the biggest change is that Mansfield occasionally swaps a brightly colored sonic palette for a darker, more grim one. Midnight Sun is slightly ominous, particularly the bluesy gothic-rock number 'The Last Word,' the electro-meets-Bauhaus opener 'A Testimony' and the harsh skronking of 'Crossed Lines.' However, the interlocking guitar mazes of 'Hesitation' add some ribbons of color, as do the affecting chorus of 'Wayward Haunted' and the cascading twinkles of 'Fallen.' With Mansfield at the helm of all the vocals and instrumentals, Midnight Sun is another thought-provoking, danceable addition to Stranded’s diverse back catalog."—Paste Magazine