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Album Review

1st Base Runner – ‘Night Stalker’ [EP] [Album Review]

Singularly imaginative, 1st Base Runner’s (aka Tim Husmann) ‘Night Stalker’ hums with a sense of mounting unease on immersive synths, creating spectral, electro-organic soundscapes.

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Artwork for the album ‘Night Stalker’ by 1st Base Runner

Near the end of 2022, Austin, Texas-based post-punk/electronic music producer and multi-instrumentalist 1st Base Runner, aka Tim Husmann, released his latest EP, Night Stalker. And just recently, 1st Base Runner was announced as part of the upcoming SXSW Festival.

In April 2023, 1st Base Runner will release a new EP, Stay Gold, featuring Adam Byram (drums) and Kevin K. Rowe (bass). Now a trio, 1st Base Runner’s sound amalgamates elements of shoegaze and ’80s dark wave into cinematic music jampacked with shadowy surfaces of tension, release, and longing.

Night Stalker begins with “In the Neighborhood,” travelling on trembling, oozing synths, followed by edgy, opaque tones. Husmann’s desolate, haunting voice enters, imbuing the tune with bleak, lonely suggestions.

“Dark Drive Through the Canyon” opens on emerging waves of synths, vibrating with ghostly mystery. As the melody takes on pulsating textures, gleaming inflections suffuse the tune with iridescent washes of sound.

The title track rolls out on gentle, sparkling colours, followed by throbbing textures atop an industrial, clopping rhythm. Ladder-like, dissonant, ringing jangles arrive, providing an ascending sensation of glaring pitches as Husmann’s low, whispering voice imbues the lyrics with pressing savours.

“The Serpent and Space” appears on evolving, fluctuating synths, radiating elegiac energy. Husmann’s voice drifts on numinous timbres, giving the song austere, gospel-like flavours.

Singularly imaginative, Night Stalker hums with a sense of mounting unease on immersive synths, creating spectral, electro-organic soundscapes.

1st Base Runner, photo by Heather Gildroy

1st Base Runner, photo by Heather Gildroy

Night Stalker Track Listing:

1. In the Neighborhood
2. Dark Drive Through the Canyon
3. Night Stalker
4. The Serpent and Space

Run Time: 12:17
Release Date: November 4, 2022
Record Label: Independent

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