The field of electric guitar ambience -- feedback and tones played, looped, treated, and more -- is now its own well-established tradition, from the early experiments of
Robert Fripp and
Brian Eno to any number of later drone artists.
Michael Walton's formal debut under the
MWVM moniker is as a result familiar rather than something strikingly new, but
Rotations is nonetheless a lovely effort all around, showing good skills in performing and arranging and signaling a promising future. Notably, in an era of extremely clean home-recording possibilities,
Walton keeps the tape hiss in, much like
Dave Pearce, a partial sonic forebear, did with
Flying Saucer Attack. "Context. Where?," the excellent opener, captures that as well as
Walton's knack for meditative but triumphant arrangements -- if so many such compositions can feel like a warm sunrise, this feels like an enveloping one. It makes further sense that the following song would be called "Fireside," since again there's a sense of embracing comfort in the high, slow swirl of tones -- there's little overtly dark-as-such in
Walton's work, no deep howling drones, but instead a chilled contemplation that emphasizes serenity. "Celestial Motion," with its back-and-forth collage touched with what sounds like a heavenly choir of ghosts, might be the pinnacle of this part of the album, while "Windows" plays up a piercing microsecond shriek as the swells rise and fall without disrupting the mood. There's also some dry humor at play -- a brief, moodier number is called "It's Easy to Be Miserable."