Texas-based label Aural Canyon provides “deep listening for the new, now age,” and a new release offers more deep, ambient listening delights borne out of Lone Star State. Justin Sweatt’s North Texas Electric captures the lingering sounds of ambient slowcore, evoking the feeling of long, solitary drives through the rural landscapes of Denton County.
Each piece is a ghostly imprint, built from sketches originally conceived for Justin’s debut live performance in December 2023. A few tracks dive into what he has dubbed “Texas Krautrock,” an experiment that reimagines the classic textures of Harmonia through the unique lens of Lone Star State German heritage. The result is a haunting fusion of past and present, where the vast Texas plains meet the rhythmic pulses of a distant, half-remembered era.
Based in Texas, Sweatt is more known for his electronic work under the name Xander Harris. He has also worked as an instrumentalist in Future Museums, Single Lash, and Slow Pulse. Released on August 19th, all the songs on North Texas Electric were created at Justin’s home studio in March and April of this year, using mono-synths, vintage string synths, old drum machines, and guitars.
North Texas Electric is an homage to the subtle beauty of the Texas plains. It combines nature sounds, kosmische, devotional music, and more to create a meditative experience that’s grounded in nature but cosmically expansive. The record’s psychedelic undercurrents can be found on tracks like “A Deeper Blue,” where the listener drifts through the looping synths and past and present merge into one on Sweatt’s late-night journeys through the rural parts of his state.
On tracks like “It Is Better To Have Loved,” you can sense spiritual dimensions like the land itself is singing ancient hymns through the ambient noise. Like Johnny Bell’s recent Field Trips via Aural Canyon Records, there’s a deep connection to place on North Texas Electric. It’s a record grounded in a specific geography, and because of that, the listener can’t help but create imaginary vistas in their mind and imagine what Justin has seen on the Texas country roads.
Ambient music has the ability to uniquely capture feelings and mood tones and connect them to ideas and specific emotions. That’s what grabbed me most about North Texas Electric. On the record, Justin engages with particular landscapes and tries to embody them through music, which is not the primary art medium you’d think of when it comes to that.
Photography can capture images of North Texas, and a painting can give us an abstract look. A poem or narrative non-fiction can describe the place and how it makes you feel. On North Texas Electric, Justin takes these feelings and ideas and expresses them through instrumental music, which may be the most interesting way to tell the story.
Fans of abstract ambient compositions will enjoy North Texas Electric for its soothing and eccentric sounds. And while you may come for the music, stick around and investigate long enough for the story Justin is telling through the music. Even if you’re unfamiliar with the North Texas terrain, you can picture the mythology of the place through the record.
Check out North Texas Electric by Justin Sweatt on Bandcamp here.
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