THE SONG OF SWAY LAKE (ORIGINAL MOTION PICTURE SOUNDTRACK)
“Gold’s bravura effort to create original music to both fit the jazz age theme as well as pushing the boundaries by blending elements of classical and new music and enlisting artists such Jon Hassell, John Grant, The Staves and Fred Frith, results in one of the most striking and extensive scores we’ve heard in a while.” – AMFM Magazine
“The soundtrack appropriately captures the film’s themes of longing to recapture better days. The reveal of the titular track is amazing.” – Film Threat
“The music, so prominent in Song of Sway Lake, creates its own dream-like world that both heightens reality and helps one drift away from it.” – Cultured Vultures
“‘Sway Lake’ is just one of many beautiful original songs written for the movie by the director Ari Gold’s twin brother Ethan Gold. They are convincingly composed in a 1940’s style that belongs on records; scratches and hiccups and all.” – InQua Magazine
EXPANSES (TEENAGE SYNTHSTRUMENTALS)
“As a music critic, but moreover as a fan, I must say that it really doesn’t get much better than a record like Expanses (Teenage Synthstrumentals) when you’re looking for pure ambience that transcendentally takes us to somewhere unearthly and stunning. In 13 songs, we travel the distance of the entire globe within, and outside of, our own consciousness. I don’t know about anyone else, but records like these are my reason for getting into independent music in the first place. This is about expressing the voice of God through the only means that we have to on this humble planet of ours.” – Skope Mag
“Charming stuff with an innocent, pre-sequencer, handcrafted feel… sounding like lo-fi Vangelis pieces that push primitive analogue instruments to their sound-warping limits.” – Uncut
“There can’t be many musicians around whose teenage noodlings you’d need to hear this badly. These early miniature synth epics and exploratory vignettes are wildly diverting, coming over like Kid Carpet covering Fuck Buttons, or a John Carpenter soundtrack for kids’ TV. ‘Lizards Enter The Rain Forest’ is a three-minute joy, and the standout ‘Aqua Petal’ sounds like something off Kraftwerk’s ‘Radioactivity’ interpreted by some wide-eyed, sun and acid-baked LA wunderkind (which he kinda is). – Electronic Sound
“While mainstream audiences are just getting exposed to this approach to songwriting, giants like Ethan Gold have been dominating the underground for some time now. I wouldn’t rule out Ethan Gold as being one of the major, unspoken influences in the future work of other artists in his medium. If you think it’s absurd to even suggest that a devotedly experimental, avant-garde artist could have such a reach, I would encourage you to have a listen to some of Lou Reed’s earlier solo work and reassess your opinion. I can say with complete confidence that I won’t hear anything quite as original as Expanses (Teenage Synthstrumentals) in all of 2018, and that is why it is my nominee for record of the year.” – Vents Magazine
LIVE UNDEAD BEDROOM CLOSET COVERS
“Often brilliant cover versions… Ramases’ hippie hymn ‘Balloon’ becomes a trippy, claustrophobic dub track; ‘The Flesh Failures’ from Hair is The Aquarian Age re-imagined as a yearning, bass-heavy nervous breakdown; the spacey, post-punk psychedelia of ‘The Past is a Grotesque Animal’ is more urgent and intense than even Of Montreal’s original. 4 Stars” -Shindig!
“Looping and synthing his way around songs by Talking Heads, Bauhaus, Devo, and their ilk.… Unhinged but weirdly compelling, particularly on an extraordinary take on The Byrds’ ‘I Am a Pilgrim’ reimagined as Einstürzende Neubauten might have played it.” – Uncut
“Rather fantastic. He evidently has killer taste in music as artists given the treatment here include Talking Heads, The Knife, New Order, Devo, and Bauhaus and his versions have an immediacy about them that you can’t help but instantly warm to.” – The Crack
“Remarkably polished pop… with echoes of Badly Drawn Boy… almost disintegrating Syd-Barrett-isms…. Essential New Music” –The Sunday Times
“The emotions on Songs From a Toxic Apartment are delivered with an unfiltered, glaring legibility.” – Pitchfork
“Haunted” – Glide Magazine
“Amazing” – Revolt
“Cathartic” – Aiding and Abetting
“The most interesting record I’ve listened to in the past 5 years” – Rock N Roll Experience
SOME OF THE VIDEOS FROM A TOXIC APARTMENT