“Day Trip” is the definition of a song built on a majestic and marvellous slow-burning evolution. Starting in a sort of indie-folk cosmic haze, a voice, a delicate and simple beat, it is clear that the sibilant Sssstephen! understands the art of layering up instruments to create gorgeously incremental change very well indeed.
This lead track from the suitably named Triptychs (which does contain three trippy songs), is at once slightly reminiscent of dream-pop and the understated indie past, and never anything other than a song built to push modern musical boundaries.
Feeling like an act of catharsis, a cocoon of sound or lucid dream that beckons you to step in, immerse, and then emerge a slightly changed, slightly better person, a seductive musical bath that bestows serenity, perhaps. “Day Trip” is as much an audio experience as it is a song.
But amongst the feelings of calmness is also the sound of regret, a wistful sonic tear that falls when you remember chances not taken or perhaps doorways that never opened, but perhaps that never opened because you didn’t try hard enough. It’s a song that reminds us that life is a series of choices and paths taken, or in this case, not.
It’s also a meeting of worlds: Sssstephen!‘s raw guitars grinding through J.J.’s dreamscape synths, creating a space where a post-punk growl is tempered by ambient musical winds, where old-school analogue meets digital deftness, where memories of love linger but are lost to time.
