For fans of The Smile, Jockstrap, Bingo Fury, baroque pop, and the cool, damp embrace of an English rain, Something Built, Something Remembered by Morgan Noise completes the Windmill sound’s transformation into pure classically-informed jazz, only returning to rock to further implement some brilliantly strange progressive compositional elements. Early tracks mostly lean on traditionally jazzy sounds like acoustic bass, clean guitar, and unassuming drums, with classically inflected vocals and pianos rounding out the sound into a West Coast style of aesthetically easygoing yet intensely complex jazz. However, these sounds still fit very clearly into the surroundings of the Windmill scene, with that signature expressive vocal inflection resting atop chord progressions which turn tension and release into an epic narrative, reaching into the extremes of dissonance and euphoria to invoke an enormous emotional range. When those rock aesthetics reemerge later on more overtly, their thorny, edgy riffing adds new dimensions to these slow swells, culminating in an even more euphoric release as the accessories pull back and we’re left with that soothing core.
