With just over 50 project’s worth of material on his Bandcamp, Garcia’s output is very real.
Looking at his past track record, producer and writer Carlos Garcia has put out discography’s worth in months – the Tacoma-based producer now just over 50 projects’ worth of material under his name.
Last year, “Chicle“, Garcia’s 2018 project, arrived with a bit of a twist.
After a prolonged period of quiet, Garcia emerged last September with a project that sits simply amidst the sprawling catalog behind him: “Chicle”, an album where ambient erosion meets drum machine, grooves equal parts funk and synth pop planting themselves within it all. Garcia’s described it as an album that was made without overthinking, describing it as a piece of his soul. In many ways, he feels “Chicle” and “F“, the 2017 project that preceded it, represent a new phase in his music – what he feels is a more mature approach. “The simple idea of moving slower is what I’ve learned across all the music I’ve made. I don’t try to control the song anymore, I kind of let it go its own way and I just try to guide it so it will meet the listener halfway.”
In the era of immediacy, Carlos shares that his eyes stretch beyond the horizon. “I try to emphasize detail and subtlety in the hope that my music will survive many listens.”
As a writing grad from the University of Arizona, he first began playing when his girlfriend gifted him with a keyboard in 2012. He refers to her as one of the primary catalysts and the main motivation behind his art, her support an essential part of his continued exploration in music and sound.
In terms of artistic inspirations, Garcia’s cornucopia of influences spans across multiple projectories. When hearing the mixture of alien jazz and trip hop, immediately spring to my mind came Madlib and his work sampling Fantastic Planet. Carlos incidentally shared Madlib as an essential artist who inspired him, among others such as Miles Davis (notably ‘In A Silent Way’ and ‘On The Corner’), Duke Ellington, King Tubby, Sun Ra, and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. He also lists classical composers, his favorite being Bach, as well as Satie, Debussy, Mozart, and Beethoven. Jazz artists from the stride and ragtime eras – specifically, Scott Joplin, Willie ‘The Lion’ Smith, and James P. Johnson, have also played their own roles in the shaping of Garcia’s sound.
As Garcia’s sole project in 2018, “Chicle” is a clean project, its most straightforward song is the first as others begin to warp and peruse through the surreal. As soothing as it is, the sounds of “Chicle” also relay a rudimentary appeal, brimming with the painterly analog notes of early electro-smiths. This quality is shared in “Rare” – the first material he’s released of 2019.”Rare” is starkly more uptempo, crawling with the flavors of blues, funk and electronic that have become a signatures in his sound. Carlos is proud of these latest 3 projects, expressing the desire to achieve songs with more form, more chords, and more melodies – overall, he expresses a need to continuously work towards better song structure.
You can listen to “Chicle”, “Rare”, “F”, and the rest of Carlos Garcia’s work on his Bandcamp.
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