Hotel Pools & Brothertiger - Paradigms
Review by Karl Magi
Overall Album Impressions
Hotel Pools & Brothertiger’s Paradigms is full of fragility, emotional complexity and serene soundscapes. Hotel Pools contributes his unique sound, full of gentle but melancholy sensations, while Brothertiger writes songs with an affecting reach that radiate the complicated feelings animating our existences. The artists combine their talents to create an album overflowing with touching emotion, beautifully placid moments and a dreamlike sensibility that I find deeply engaging.
Brothertiger’s performance is especially noteworthy on Paradigms. His voice has a floating quality that’s still fully able to convey the lyrics he has written. Those lyrics themselves are rich with the mixed emotions that define human nature. He roams across landscapes of longing, loss and rediscovery as his voice transmits those sensations to the listener with purity.
The musical backing woven by both artists creates a beautiful backdrop for the songs. Moments of deeply pacific contemplation mix with more energetic passages, all washed in pastel tones that exhale peace. As the music unfolds, I find myself gliding on a tide of elegant sound that surrounds and caresses me with aching gentleness.
I also want to reflect on Paradigms’ atmosphere. Each track is drenched in thoughtful elegance, radiating calm and quiet beauty as it unfolds. The album moves with hushed motion, gliding like a breeze through the music, creating moments for thought and introspection. I enjoy how the songs allow me to escape into a quiet place in a noisy world.
My Favourite Songs Analyzed
“Black” comes to life as balmy sounds trickle and pattering percussion moves. Sunlit synth hovers elegantly as it levitates on a background hum. The drum beat drifts in and out while reverberant tones move in the distance.
Brothertiger's voice drips with a wistful feeling, carrying a melody full of hope despite the struggles faced. The rhythm is steady and clean, guiding the words as they slip past. Brothertiger’s deep tones touch me, transmitting the dreamy, aching lyrics. The exhalations of the notes are tender and contrast with the solidly throbbing beat, while the vocals sail past with caressing emotion.
Hotel Pools creates a vibrant backing sound which wraps around Brothertiger’s wonderfully affecting performance. As the raised tones slip by with buoyant lightness, the song closes out.
The storyteller is “farther out than I’ve ever been so far” as he asks the song’s subject to come find him. He says that “out here I can really come apart” as he tries to find illumination in the darkness and a “sliver of a pure heart.”
“Come find me,” our narrator says once more as he speaks of falling into the “trembling unknown.” As he spirals through, mysteries unfold and he is “shivering from the chill of the bitter cold.” He wonders if he’s better for it and concludes that he doesn’t know.
Now the storyteller wonders if the song’s subject will “come to the other side.” He urges them not to hide and to feel it for the first time, reassuring them that he’s all right. Once again, he asks them to come to the other side and not to hide. He concludes, “wait for the sun moving out on the sky.”
A soft crackle moves with hazy notes that are broken by moments of silence before clinking percussion rings metallically to commence “Into the Blue.” The bass is tremendously dense while the percussion adds a sharper tone and the piano carries a melody that stimulates meditative thought.
Brothertiger's voice is full of whispering grace as the tripping beat adds to the shaping rhythm. A positive sensation charges the ethereal vocals with heartfelt emotion, contrasting with the synth which exudes soft-edged luminosity. The rhythm hops, slightly broken, as the vocals caress me with their emotive power. Hotel Pools’ melody is full of delicately shimmering love while the steadily pulsating beat adds guidance.
I enjoy the feelings Brothertiger pours into the lyrics, full of interest in the subject’s well-being. The undertones add a clean sharpness while the vocals keep sliding, velvety smooth and expressive, as the melody glimmers like sunlight catching the edge of a cloud before the track ends on a rhythmic heartbeat.
As the morning waits for him, the narrator's head is in a cloud. Suddenly, he awakens: “the sun it drowns,” and he feels relief as the song’s subject rolls out and slows down. He adds, “I finally found some space to think things out, a little time away to break things down.” He’s relieved to feel the other person come around.
Our storyteller asks for the song’s subject to have a little faith in him because he has faith in them. He speaks of “running away into the blue, finding a way to make it through.” They’re making do but still finding a way as they run off into the blue.
The waves roar at night as the narrator reminds the song’s subject that “you gotta find your way in the flow of life, I can’t believe the way things go sometimes.” He can’t believe the other person is rolling with the tide and suddenly, “lost in the craze of modern life, it’s like I’m running a race in overdrive.” He concludes, “I wanna believe I’ll get across the line, I wanna believe I’m getting close to find.”
“Slow Motion” opens with trembling notes carrying a resonant feeling, moving above gliding vocal sounds and solidly guiding underpinnings. Brothertiger’s wordless voice floats with lightness as the sharply rapping beat pushes forward. The vocals are breathy and full of life, carrying a melody full of relief and relaxation.
The way in which Brothertiger carries the melody is uplifting and fills me with a sense of joy, while a guitar adds levity and hopeful encouragement. The bass weight slides past as the unique percussion gives the music an ear-pleasing dynamism. Brothertiger captures sensations of release and serenity, while the backing synth lends a feathery feeling to the sound.
A broad synth flares out with solar shine, like the first sunlight of a cloudy day, while the low-end architecture forms a shaping bead. Guitar and vocals mingle in restful motion before silence ends the song.
The storyteller asks, “Tell me that you’re going my way,” because he is lacking company. He feels as if he’s “slow motion driving” without any alteration in the hourglass. He finds himself “flyin’ down the lonesome highway, wind pushing on my back” as he hopes that he and the song’s subject can get ahead of the hard rain.
Our narrator says he “could use another tank of gas” as the wind whips by. He wonders if he can “weather this storm” with the other person. He wants to know they’re going his way, because now they’re not a stranger but a friend at last. He concludes, “drifting in slow motion vibing, nothing to do but watch the clouds roll past.”
Aquatic sounds move through the music with a trembling feeling as clean drums snap to begin “Point Break.” Like blue water drifting, the synth slides while Brothertiger’s voice caresses with silky expression, carrying a melody that spreads like ripples on a becalmed ocean. The rhythmic heartbeat presses forward while the gossamer vocals wander.
As the beat moves with a panpipe synth singing a soothing melodic line, the interaction with the wordless vocals is charming and touching. Waves wash as distant tones flutter like sea plants in the current, while the vocals lend a meditative quality to the music. Beneath it all, the steady beat creates rhythmic energy while the vocals shiver.
The panpipe synth creates an airy fragility, hovering above the solid bass weight. An exhalation drifts out before Brothertiger carries the calming melody with feeling. As the track evolves, all the auditory elements combine into one complete expression before the music ends.
The narrator never minds solitude, adding that winter’s brief cold “couldn’t occupy silent moving river wind underneath the warmth of a summer sky.” Two opposites intermingle as he feels “the give and pull from your end of the line.” He and the song’s subject are “opposite but synchronized” as they enjoy the beauty “in the motion of slow life.”
A “barreling wave, closing out so nice” lets the storyteller feel “the point break falling into dive.” Whatever comes their way, they’ll take it all in stride. He asks the song’s subject to “follow my wake to ride that tangled line.” He adds that the other person’s “silence tears me up inside, fearless in devotion.”
Up until now, the narrator says he’ll keep an open mind, despite the other person’s mood being like “an ocean, up and down.” He recognizes shattered dreams and says, “We can make our own way, further out, try to see the good in life, the beauty in the motions, up and down.”
“Haze” opens with densely twisting tones and gossamer chimes. As the bubbling tones shift, pan pipes exhale with fragile sensitivity and the bass rumbles. The guitar tangles smoothly while the snapping percussion cuts through with gliding ease. The main melody is thoughtful as Brothertiger’s whisper-soft vocals exude affection. The way in which the vocals deliver emotive depth is something I find moving.
Rippling notes expand with round depth as distant tones float with satin grace and the rhythm adds a balanced pulse. Breathy notes drift as the chimes gleam with dawn light before the vocals slide again, wrapping around me in a calming tide while the beat continues to shift. Firefly-like light is exuded by elevated notes that delicately skim over the music while tranquility pours out. As the chorus unfolds, ardent emotion fills the song before it ends.
A new cloud appears in the storyteller’s sky as he admits to not feeling like himself lately. He says, “I’m giving this life of mine a new face,” as he asks the song’s subject to stay and take a ride a little late. He adds, “I need you right beside me through the pain, you’re bringing me slowly back to life.” He points out that everything comes back around again.
Our narrator asks, “Why so dramatic?” as he reminds the song’s subject that it’s only them, “so go ahead and grab it.” The other person has found their missing piece and he’ll “break the habit.” He points out that it isn’t meant to be, “so go ahead and grab it, it’s all just memories now.”
It’s fate, the “feeling of floating light in the haze” without a ceiling to hold the storyteller down. He says, “I’m keeping my feelings right at bay, no way I’m comin’ down.” He concludes that the other person can’t “keep feeding fuel into my flame then turn around and say that it’s okay, because the comedown is feeling right as rain, the world keeps spinning ‘round.”
Cosmic chimes float with metallic delicacy as Brothertiger’s dreaming voice levitates to start “Eye to Eye.” The melody longs and reaches for meaning as echoing percussion guides the music. The vocals transmit powerful need while the broadly vibrating synth ripples tidally.
Hopeful tones warm my heart as the steady pulse shapes the track. Reverberant sounds tremble, silken flows drift in the background and ghostly vocals hover with spectral lightness. Caring and kindness infuse the music while sunlit haziness slides beneath the beat’s throb. All of the passion and affection within the track flows out before the song ends.
On his way back “through the thicket of vines,” the storyteller was straying through “the tangling wilds.” He wandered off the path and “could not see through the night,” so he had to “find my way back to your beckoning light.”
The narrator can feel the song’s subject near and wants to “follow by your side” because he hopes it’ll lead to something he never knew he’d find, someone who is “so eye to eye, riding the same line.”
As he returned, the storyteller wondered who could say where he was. He adds, “I could not stay on track through the thicket of brush.” He wonders who would pick him back up if he drifted too far from the path and concludes that he had to “find my way back to your beckoning touch.”
Conclusion
Paradigms carries me on a wonderfully melancholy, dreamy journey across beautifully woven soundscapes that permeate the music with peace and fill me with tranquility. This is music to feel and dream wistfully by.
