Cindergarden – Anthology Vol.1 (Album – Wave Records)
Genre/Influences: Electro-Pop, Wave-Pop, Ethereal-Pop.
Format: Digital, CD.
Background/Info: Cindergarden is the sonic brainchild of Jaymie Valentine. She set up her solo-project in 2006 and already released multiple productions on her own label Looking Glass Records. This “Anthology” released by Wave Records is a compilation of songs recorded all over the years. Eighteen songs have been selected.
Content: The sound universe of Cindergarden is hard to define. It definitely has something electro-Pop driven, but still going back to some 80s Wave-Pop influences while other passages are darker and even a bit ghost-like. The album also reveals a few more Minimal-Electro like parts revealing one of the very few ‘club’-driven cuts (cf. “The Light Keeps Calling – Radio Edit”.
+ + + : Jaymie Valentine is doing everything herself this way revealing impressive skills as musician and producer. She also created a very personal approach in music, which will for sure appeal for ‘Pop’-lovers, but the work is more than this. It’s a delicate production and some tracks would even fit on a Soundtrack. I however prefer the minimal approach revealed at “Big Bang Baby – Radio Edit” and the aforementioned club-driven “The Light Keeps Calling”.
– – – : A sweet and enjoyable listening, but without absolute highlights.
Conclusion: Cindergarden stands for dark although sweet Pop with a very own approach.
Best songs: “Big Bang Baby – Radio Edit”, “The Light Keeps Calling – Radio Edit”, “Sheep”.
Rate: (7).
Artist: www.facebook.com/Cindergarden
Label: www.waverecordsmusic.com / www.facebook.com/waverecords
About Cindergarden
Cindergarden is the solo project of Jaymie Valentine, who was born in Honolulu, Hawaii, grew up in Las Vegas and is based in Los Angeles. She has written, produced and recorded all her own material since the first Cindergarden release in 2006, issued on her own label Looking Glass Records. Discogs lists the albums “Underground Light Machine” (2006), “The Clandestine Experiment” (2008), “Grim Confections” (2010), the EP “Lunar Phases / Winter Solstice” (2012), “Angel” (2015) and the double CD “Architectures Of The Becoming” (2017), all on Looking Glass Records.
“Anthology Vol. 1” was released on 18 January 2021 by Wave Records and Shades Of Sound as a remastered CD limited to 200 copies in a six-panel ecopack, and as a download. The eighteen tracks are “One By One”, “Dirty Ritual”, “Sad Eye Doll”, “Bad Dreams”, “Alibi”, “Mire”, “The Beat Inside”, “Hex”, “One More Drop”, “Lunar Phases”, “The Light Keeps Calling”, “Big Bang Baby”, “Angel”, “Playthings”, “Nothing Revealed”, “Transformed”, “Ubiquitous” and “Sheep”. Valentine wrote, performed, produced and engineered the songs at Looking Glass Records; the Discogs notes credit Lee McCartney with mixing and Ted Phelps with mastering on several tracks.
The digital release “Egyptian Études” followed on Looking Glass Records in 2024. “Anthology Vol. 1” is the project’s first Side-Line review.
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