<p><span><span>- Brisbane based songstress <strong>Amber Ramsey</strong> writes, records and releases tunes under the name Cloud Tangle. She has been developing and refining her sound for six years, and has just released her debut album, <em>Kinds of Sadness</em>, which follows coolly on the heels of last year's EP <em>Falling Asleep</em>. The bedroom production spawns soundscapes that are simultaneously lush and lo-fi. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>Eighty percent of the songs on <em>Kinds of Sadness</em> were written and recorded on Amber's bed, on the floor, and on work breaks, but even though the songs were mostly conceived and brought forth in everyday, earth-bound locations, the final product floats in the sort of rarefied, supernal clouds that befits the best of soft, celestial, sadness-saturated slowcore.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>There is a strong orchestral feel to <em>Kinds of Sadness</em>, with the synths getting a heavy work out - in a light touch sort of way - along with thin silken webs of guitar patterns, and percussive heartbeats that stay suitably submerged in the background. Floating across it all is Amber's elevated, exquisitely empyrean vocals.</span></span></p>
<p><span><span>The quality of the vocals is a key reason why this album stands out above the average, wafty, dreamy song that tends to reach only as far above the earth as the level your ears happen to be at when you're listening to it. This is a voice that manages to simultaneously sound distant and inside your head at the same time. It's like noticing you have cool clouds of fog around your feet, and then realising that somehow that fog is actually an enshrouding cloud, lifting you, imperceptibly, in an indeterminate limbo between the earth and the heavens. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>There are ten tracks on the album - unless you buy the very limited edition cassette version which contains a bonus track and mini-zine of Amber's poetry. Going for a little over thirty minutes in total, introspection is very much the order of the day. Inward-looking reflection and emotional exploration probably befits these times of social isolation, though some types of emotions get more of an outing than others on this occasion. Even the songs that touch fleetingly on the possibilities of happiness have wistfulness wafting watchfully through them. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>I recommend you let yourself get tangled up in some Cloud Tangle. You might find yourself so caught up you can't quite break free, but the ties that bind you will be soft and sericeous, like the finest sirens' songs that serenade your soul. </span></span></p>
<p><span><span>- Andrew Bartlett.</span></span></p>
<iframe style="border: 0; width: 100%; height: 120px;" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=1864033887/size=large/bgcol=f…; seamless><a href="http://cloudtangle.bandcamp.com/album/kinds-of-sadness">Kinds of Sadness by Cloud Tangle</a></iframe>