Graffiti Welfare – Revolving Shores (Album)

It’s not about the number of plays. It’s not about fame, or pleasing the latest internet hype. “Revolving Shores” released back in June 2022 is about something else. It’s bigger. It creates something meaningful.

The album of the Denver-based producer known as Graffiti Welfare takes a blank canvas, but not one to paint on with colors. Within the playing time of the album, the canvas is filled with life by melodic textures, non-linear rhythms, and floating thoughts and feelings brought to life by unique playing patterns. The first track, “To Be It”, starts with a blank void. Nothingness feeling pitch black that is slowly filled with life. Soft melodic reverbed textures are bringing some light into the darkness. In a way, this tune feels like the birth of ideas, brought to life by synth pulses and distant flickering sparks that give the track the ignition eventually. Once this tune opened the door to the unique floating time and space construct, with “Just Follow” you get a wavey guide through a maze of dreamy vocals. In a way, although only two minutes in length, this track creates the feeling of switching from REM sleep to deep sleep. For me, it’s like an intermediate stage between reality and the world that the album creates.

“DejaBlue” contains a unique retro-flavored lo-fi texture. Enriched with sparkling percussive extras and a playful melodic approach, the track feels at ease and relaxed while going deeper into the world of Graffiti Welfare. At this point you can feel the immersive capabilities of the album, gently pulling you in without force, opening your eyes to a new world while you get lost in the gentle groove that switches seamlessly with lively melodies. While “Good News” grabs the positive playful melodic theme, it adds something more dense to it. With an energetic drive added through the rhythmic patterns along with more serious melodic structures added, the track feels lightweight and tense at the same time. It’s the first time listening to the album that it feels like there’s a paved way, a red dotted line if you will, that shows you borders, edges, and limits. Not with brute force though, it’s more like a night ride by train. You cannot influence what’s happening outside the windows, but you can process the information of what’s happening as a passenger. “Volume” on the other hand puts the focus more on the straightforward side, feeling like you just got up, the split second when you don’t know where you are before your brain starts to filter out all the information. In an edgy and driving way, the track feels restless and torn between pulsating beats and dreamy vocal waves.

And then there’s “Echoes of Our Sound”. What starts with a quirky melody with an almost underwater-ish behavior, evolves into a lightweight yet also melancholic journey down memory lane for me. This isn’t all happy and carefree for me personally. One of the things I love about this album is exactly this ability to transmit more than initially meets the ear, it’s soul food on several levels, so to speak.
With “Synesthesia” it’s no different. The track feels like playing hide-and-seek with your mind in a location you’ve never been to before. All of the components create a bright floating atmosphere, giving the track and its general vibe an almost majestic deep space vibe that is enriched with unexpected dense fabrics of energy.

“Nothing Ever Changes” steps on the brakes in an unusual way though. Almost driving a mainstream chillout concept, the tune is guided by a laid-back rhythm while doing its relaxed thing with guitar textures, and that signature-styled main theme that I’d like to describe as “going up the ladder”. In a way, for me, it’s an ode to the journey itself, acknowledging both the monotony of the process and the ever-changing variables of it. And then without warning, “Missing the War” lashes out with a processed intensity and an almost unpleasant reminder that you never should feel too safe no matter where you are. In the beginning, that is. Following is a synth organ-based ballad that is placing you back in that trippy environment you always were in when this journey started. Once again, there’s this old-soul vibe present, it’s a perfect blend of electronic retro-flavored elements to a single song. This tune is one of my favorite ones because of its versatile nature. It feels like speed dating of thoughts and gives you a very dense and compressed showcase of what the artist is all about.

“Seashell” is closing the album. Having a deeper meaning to the artist, the track closes the journey with a warm and understanding environment. There’s life to find in the tune, it feels like watching kids at a playground. A lot is happening within those three minutes, and for me, it’s a fitting closing chapter of the album, letting the listener know that everything is in motion. This is how the world works. Some things end, and some others are just starting. Life itself, families, friendships, you name it – everything is constantly evolving like the elements in the track. All in all, it’s a bright and positive reminder that we all are part of something bigger.

For me, the transmission of different moods along the music is the absolute strong suit of the album. Many of the tunes on there give you the feeling that you’re listening to something familiar. Something you forgot but now remember again. Something that feels like a scenery, or a memory, something you once experienced but that got lost along the way. The gentle yet effective way of bringing that up is what I like the most about the work of Graffiti Welfare.