Spectreview: Sam Prekop – Comma

Released: September 11, 2020

Electronic
Ambient

-DEEP PINK-

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Since the 90s, Sam Prekop (of Chicago’s The Sea and Cake) has demonstrated his ability to take any style, from bossa nova to whirring found sounds, and fabricate it into pop. Not pop in the way label executives might use the term, but pop in the way it sounds: light and effortless, like how the word cake seems to evaporate off the tongue.

Comma comes five years after his last record, The Republic, and this time it’s modular synths that do all the heavy lifting. Unsurprisingly, it’s a lovely listen. Part dance record, part lazy-river ambience, it floats by with a benevolent ease and an adept’s approach to sequencing. Despite the abundance of unchallenging tunes here – from the elliptical path of the title track to the modal bleeps of “Circle Line” vaporous reverie of “September Remember” – Comma still feels like a deep work, bouncing between moods and movements with a meaningfulness that’s hard to place.

Perhaps it doesn’t need to be placed. Likely, In “Park Line’s” undulating pads and “Wax Wing’s” pulsing sparks, we’re meant simply to pause and breathe. Comma isn’t something you’ll be hearing for the first time, but there’ll always be room for music this light.

Recommended for infrequent meditation.