Straight from the ecstatic mind of Arbutus maverick Lydia Ainsworth comes her first mixtape, a magically alive journey through disembodied vocals and haunted orchestral melodies that shows off her background in film scoring. Full of surprises and secrets, it's a beguiling peek at the future-pop architect's origins. After plunging us into Wendy Carlos’s Clockwork Orange intro, Ainsworth flits from disarming chorals to ’80s gems from the likes of Kate Bush and Japan, which hark back to that fertile post-punk period when deconstruction had played out and the alt. mainstream's mission became rebuilding pop from the ground up. Here’s her take: “This mix is best listened to on a midnight stroll when you have no place to go and no one to see. Aimless listening walks such as this played an important part in the direction of the sound of my album. I've included a selection of the kind of music that made me see and feel the sublime in the mundane, the kind of music that made me take a second look down familiar streets to discover secrets in the shadows.”
Right from Real is out today on iTunes
