At times, some artists can find themselves dealing with the dreaded writer’s block. That annoying situation when nothing comes to mind and the creative process comes to a screeching halt, which can obviously lead to a lot of frustrations. However, sometimes creatives deal with the opposite. A single spark of inspiration can ignite an explosion of content.
Oftentimes we see artists leaving some songs on the chopping block for certain albums, because they simply didn’t have enough room. Perhaps they had dozens of songs written, hundreds, and potentially thousands. Something similar could be said for Buenos Aires based guitarist, Juli Rexton and her new album, “Lost Old Tapes.”
This album is a collection of six songs from her earlier days, at a time in her life when she was playing various styles of music. She pulls inspiration from progressive rock to Blues. Just like jazz, those genres can spark a lot of creativity and end up leading to a lot of material, simply for the randomness and the improvisation which those styles are known for.
Thankfully, and lucky for us listeners, she has decided to pull out those old recordings from out of the archives and dust them off in this new release. Most of the material has been inspired from her travels, in various places that she has visited. There is probably a story and a deep meaning behind each of the tracks, but what’s great about it is it also can be open to interpretation for the listener.
For example, some of the places I like to visit are locations that have a lighthouse. And on her track titled “The Lighthouse,’ it opens with this angelic almost harp like beautiful strumming. It’s serenity. For me personally, it makes me reminisce about the times I would visit this one location that had this beautiful lighthouse when I was a kid, some of my fondest memories were from that time. I feel like these are tracks many listeners can make a connection with.
“Voices of People That I Admire” is a track that has an incredibly cool effect. It’s another calming and peaceful song, but this time you keep hearing this voice speaking in the background, which you can’t quite make out what it’s saying. It’s got a great haunting effect. The song is roughly a minute and a half long, so it’s something you will definitely want to have on repeat if you want some great ambient music playing in the background.
The inspiration for the track “Karnak Ship” came to her when she was inspired by visiting this abandoned ship, on an empty beach that has been there since the 1800s. So it’s likely somewhat of a historical location, and given the empty space, it was probably peaceful for her, and brought happiness. I presume it’s something similar for her the way that specific lighthouse was for me.
“Lost Old Tapes” sounds just like the title suggests. Which is what gives it a lot of its charm. This isn’t something with super tight production, it’s just a DIY artist strumming away recording their tracks, maybe even in her bedroom or a home office. It’s raw, it’s authentic, and it’s true.
It’s going to be interesting to see where Juli Rextons music takes her next. She has implied that she’s not looking to fall under one specific genre, but she’s fusing together various sounds. Who knows what she has in store for us, but we’re certainly looking forward to what comes next. You can check out her new album at the following link below, on Spotify.
4/5
SPOTIFY: https://spoti.fi/3DOydvg
INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/julirexton/
YOUTUBE: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCLlEKY6b9ZwRmFHgOLPhqOw
