Simple guitar chords and slow, rusty drums are the first elements that catch the ear in New Jersey’s Bucolic‘s single "Slow Words" (streaming below). But it is Seth Carpenter’s confident, pressing vocals, drenched in reverb, that really hone in on the ambient nature of the music. Similarly, the six-minute "Great Miles Old," punctuated by a recurring, shimmery guitar riff, lifts us into Bucolic’s sweeping, woodsy world with ease. The music is minimalistic but takes ownership of the hollowed-out textures, so that each sound in the recordings has room to breathe. Listen to Bucolic, and inhale deeply. – Geena Kloeppel
