Beacon The Ways We Separate [Ghostly, 2013]

Ghostly International maintains excellent taste, signing on the Brooklyn duo, Thomas Mullarney and Jacob Gossett, known together as Beacon. The Ways We Separate is a great debut, an airy set of tracks that incorporate hip hop, R&B, IDM, and electro-pop elements. Thomas Mullarney’s vocals are present for almost every track, which was initially disconcerting. However, vox is mixed reasonably well— never overpowering though sometimes just a tad too saccharine. One thing I particularly enjoy is the general feel that Beacon have created an album, not a collection of pseudo-electropop tracks. There is a give/take to this however, with some of the later tracks feeling like auxiliary filler, ideas not fully formed. This doesn’t do the group any favors when the album time is already a mere 35mins. Perhaps that’s just enough time to get Beacon’s sound, but not enough for it to become tedious. In any case this will be a tough album to one-up for the duo, interesting work. 
RECOMMENDED: 1!, 3, 4, 5!, 6+7(paired), 10!
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