If you haven’t yet, take a quick gander to the left of this here text and you’ll see somethin’ The Deli has been workin’ on for a goodly bit. Not only have we finally fixed our damn pesky top artists list, we’ve gone and improved the thing in some major ways. In particular, you now have all sorts of neat-ass options to sort the top bands in Austin, which we’ve added what for to get you more new musics to listen to. Mess around with it a bit, it’s some pretty cool new shit.
As an example of both said cool new shit and the kind of thing the list can show ya, take electronic artist/producer Corduroi who has been crackin’ into a few of the top artists lists now that we’ve gone and tweaked it. It’s no surprise to us whatsoever that Corduroi is showin’ up on there, because this guy, a born-n-bred Austinite whose real name is Cody Wilson, has been making quite a buzz about town this week with his fresh-ass debut album Oceanarium.
The ocean-themed, light-drenched Oceanarium was released by Raw Paw Records on 4/20, which is just too appropriate for this high-ready LP. That this album was born from water is not just apparent from the its name and its beached-up song titles, it’s also absolutely saturated with lovely sounds (many pulled straight from the ocean) that pair to perfection with images of impeccably lazy days by the sea. It’s an album you float through as if you were be-sunglassed, half-buzzed and half-asleep on an inner-tube surrounded by a never-ending series of waves which march off to the horizon as bright, warm daylight plays all around the ocean that is this music, making you feel like the world maybe really is a quite lovely place indeed.
In fact, the tone of this thing, and aiming for a specific tone is what this album is all about, reminds me of the first time I went to LA in the summer and got mild hypothermia from the ocean. I ended up sitting in a hot tub, burning and freezing at the same time and watching the sunset over the beach through eyes that were seeing everything like a cliche 60s film acid trip, all swirling technicolor and warped. It was, weirdly, a thoroughly pleasant, quirky feeling inspired by the sea that went all the way through to my bones, and that’s about as good as a description of Oceanarium as any I can think of.
You can get yer own float goin’ by streaming the whole thing here and gorgeous synth-laden single "Overboard" below, and if you dig it, there’s just ever so much more discoverin’ to do over to the left in our newfangled, fancypants top artist lists. Get t’listenin’ y’all, there’s a lot of ATX goodness over there just waiting for your ears.