Towards a Quaker View of Synthesizers by Cascading Slopes (Review)

According to their blog, Cascading Slopes (a side-project of The Drums’ Jacob Graham) seeks to “apply the Quaker concepts of plainness and simplicity to the creation of electronic music.” That may seem like an odd mission statement, but I urge you to just go with it: “plainness and simplicity” are likely what makes Towards a Quaker View of Synthesizers such an enchanting album. You can file it under “synthpop” — Joy Electric and Erasure influences are definitely at work here — but these dozen songs possess an emotional heft that one doesn’t always associate with the genre.

The album begins with its strongest track, “Wild Geese,” which spins potentially awkward nature imagery — “We’re like the wild geese that fly through the thunder/Onward and upward, through the clouds” — into a gorgeous tale of heartache and longing. (Graham’s delicate voice certainly enhances the effect.) Such imagery permeates the album alongside C.S. Lewis references (e.g., “Horns of Archenland”), which imbues the album with a sense of wonder and naïveté that plays nicely with both Graham’s shimmering vintage synthesizers and his unabashed romanticism.