PBS’73 :: Yesterday Network (Magic Square)

Yesterday Network illustrates an alluring yet surreal passage through pleasant electronic listening music and is a great launching point from his 2016 Rainbow TV album.

PBS’73 (aka Austin, Texas-based Elijah Franks) opens his account with the newly formed Magic Square Records—an imprint launched on July 21st, 2017, and co-run with Faex Optim.

Shuffling voices near and far, staccato beats find themselves in a swirl of hazy melodic streams. An obvious nod to the Sandison brothers, Yesterday Network floats by in a dream like, psychedelic state—tiny ambient-synth interludes drift by in brief minutes (“Field Trip Out” and “Lost Yellow”), while other panoramic audio snapshots transmit pastoral percussion (“Letter of the Day.”) Franks is able to sway back and forth between times gone by and current sound structuring, all the while installing chilled, downtempo yet uplifting moments as revealed on “Butterfly Inside.” How it all merges together smoothly is an art form in and of itself. The album continues to craft those familiar kaleidoscopic rhythms as in the majestic horns of “Education Video” but also progresses in its own trajectory.

As a result Yesterday Network illustrates an alluring yet surreal passage through pleasant electronic listening music and is a great launching point from his 2016 Rainbow TV album.

Yesterday Network is available on Magic Square.