- Brisbane artist Andrew Tuttle is set to release a new album entitled Fantasy League on Someone Good (Room40's avant-pop imprint). Before releasing music under his own name he went by the moniker Anonymeye. Much like his old work, Tuttle combines the electronic and the acoustic to create entrancing sounds. It’s become Tuttle’s favourite haunt and again he occupies it with enthusiasm: that intriguing space between bluegrass banjo and buzzing electronics. Depending on your ear I suppose that could have you slapping your knee or if ambient isn’t your thing, simply induce sleep.

The album starts off with Registration, setting the tone with some almost bluegrass plucks atop warming drone. The second track Activation begins with cascading arpeggios. The pure electronic tones go through various iterations, slowing down and speeding up.  The timbre of the synth reminded me immediately of Goblin’s Markos from the Susperia soundtrack (albeit without the dour, homicidal overtones). The contrastingly short Team Building carries the light mood further, sequences bubbling forth before becoming indistinct in a warm fog.

Guitar is reintroduced in Forgotten Username, a melodic riff being plucked above some aqueous gurgles. Halfway the guitar is then reversed, and flipping foward again. Forgotten Username is followed by Forgotten Password, a similarly guitar driven song. It has a matching structure, the guitar dissipating into the ether after the midway point.

The guitar is put back in its case for Public League. Soft-focus synth lines are looped while various whirs and bloops ricochet around. This eventually gives way to a beautiful melodic synth sequence. Private League begins with pure tones before some sizzley sonics are foregrounded, Tuttle noodling for a while before chirpy bleeps end the track.

Leaderboard is Tuttle at his best – a sublime track that pairs guitar and synth expertly, the instrumentation morphing into each other over its 2-minute duration. Injury Crisis is another guitar-centric piece. Plucks are heavily processed, delayed noted ascending and descending one after the other.

The short Maximum Changes Reached consists of what sounds like a bliss-out organ, sounding like angelic church music heard miles from the altar. Album closer Account Locked concludes with more surging synths and arpeggios.

 Although I’d classify this album as ambient -and it’s quite minimal in its approach, only a few, sparse elements spent on any individual piece- the songs certainly aren’t boring. The timbres and melodies are constantly changing and shifting in this bluegrasstronic collage. Even if Fantasy League didn’t deepen his personal exploration of the sound, his contribution to music is still a sound apart from any other.

- Hill Folk.