Mind The Journey
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States | Established. Jan 01, 2015 | AFM
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In the vast dust storm of electronic noise, there are some grains of sand that glitter amidst the haze. Hailing from Boston is psychedelic dreamer Spencer Sabo’s project, Mind The Journey. Fusing various elements from electronica, psych rock, synth pop, alternative, and avant-garde, his upcoming album Color in The Gray Machine is a sonic bath of innovation and electric bliss.
Like many new artists, Color in The Gray Machine was created in Sabo’s basement, a modern version of the garage band. Raised on the tranquil shores of Connecticut, Sabo spent his early years learning the drums, exploring the many corners of creativity, and making playful films with his brother. He continued immersing himself in music all through high school where he met other musically-inclined peers with whom he started a band. Sabo’s sound experimentation continued to expand at the age of 17 when he began tinkering with an old keyboard, opening up a new region of his brain. This marked the birth of Mind The Journey where he began materializing the many textures and fabrics of his mind.
Sabo’s first album as Mind The Journey was an eight-track, self-titled EP which garnered attention both online and within his local music community. The EP is a collection of dreamy and ethereal songs that depict Sabo’s path towards discovering his signature sound. Between this EP and his live performances in the New England area, Mind The Journey is beginning to gain traction as he prepares to release his newest, full length album in January of 2016.
The first single released off of Color in The Gray Machine is “Rose Colored Glasses,” a psychedelic odyssey which takes the listener through frenetic soundscapes and ethereal melodies. Warm and inviting, the track evokes visions of swirling fractals, lava lamps, and silhouetted go-go dancers. Like a 1960s fantasy mixed with a modern, electronic haze, “Rose Colored Glasses” paints a complex, yet palatable soundscape that dances upon the line between experimental and catchy. - The Huffington Post
Recently my son’s mother accused me of living my life through Rose Colored Glasses, and then last week on my personal blog I wrote why there is absolutely nothing wrong with that. And this week, I believe all of that much more than last. Here we are.
I’ve been reviewing music submissions for a great new platform that pays me for organizing our submissions emails for us, and pays us to listen to those submissions that we would have received anyway and provide feedback as to why decline a submission. It exposes us to new audiences, but it also lets artists know that if they want some serious attention paid to their copy/cut-and-pasted emails, they have the option to pay for access to our attention spans. Time, after all, is money, ‘no?’
My process is the same. Search high and low for a tune that makes me feel something.
Watching the pilot episode of Vinyl on HBO last night, I found myself relating to the blond intern (Jamie Vine) from Kew Gardens, Queens in NYC who pitches a band called Nasty Bits. It’s not that she digs their sound, it is the fact that they make the crowds feel something, good or bad, that she loves. That’s what I look for in music: for the music to make me feel something. Make me remember a moment in time that felt the same. A split second from a love affair that had the same sounds. A long distance drive in the rain through the Fall’s foliage. Anything.
At the beginning of this track, I hated it. It starts off loud and obnoxious like something we would expect to jump out at us while listening to a new Kanye or Kendrick Lamar album. The abrupt sounds almost make me skip this altogether until the next submission. And then something changes.
The reason that there is nothing wrong with seeing things through Rose Colored Glasses is because the rose colored glass is the mix of the world that takes place first, in your mind, and then the one here, in which things that already took place in your mind must be executed. Rose Colored Glasses are a filter of those two worlds happening harmoniously.
At 00:53 seconds, the tune changes. The sonic chaos is gone, and a beautiful mixture of sounds warmly takes over. The song slows its pace down, and the vocals follow suit. I dig what it’s saying. I put it on repeat and purchase the track for $1. If you dig it too, you should support this kind of imaginative, edgy, non-traditional and risky experimental approach to music. I personally hate when something sounds too familiar to me. - ET MUSIQUE POUR TOUS
Connecticut-based Spencer Sabo got his start in music as a drummer, before discovering the keyboard at age 17. The one-two punch of having a grasp on both these instruments naturally led him toward the realm of audio production. His solo project Mind the Journey combines Sabo’s percussive and keyboard talents with his enthusiasm for psych-pop/rock production, very much in the similarly otherwordly world of The Flaming Lips. As much is evident in the first minute alone of “Rose Colored Glass”, where Sabo projects his intense and distorted vocals over a landscape of evolving keyboards and whirring suspense, before transitioning to a suave relaxer after the one-minute mark. This whirring distorted drone guides the rest of the track through keyboard-laden and arpeggiated journeys over Sabo’s melodic vocals, reminiscent of Neon Indian’s Alan Palomo. It’s a good one, off his upcoming album Color in the Gray Machine, out January 5th. - Obscure Sound
Spencer Sabo is a rather young psychedelic dreamer. Under the moniker Mind The Journey, his latest album Color In The Gray Machine dives straight into the deep-end of experimental psychedelic rock. Honestly, though, the complexities of this album stretch far beyond the psych-rock genre. Unequal parts Tame Impala, The Faint, and Nirvana, Color In The Gray Machine reverberates throughout your noggin, with every drumbeat, guitar, synthline, and vocals carrying with it a heavy dose of melancholy distortion. His voice seems as though it is being dragged against its will through each song – sluggishly lingering with every syllable. But as much as this sounds like a bad thing, it pairs surprisingly well alongside these fuzzy, off-grunge, electronic psych tunes.
Color In The Gray Machine is Spencer’s first full-length album as Mind The Journey, and it is a truly enjoyable experience. “Rose Colored Glasses” is how I imagine it must feel like to make it out of a bad acid trip in one piece – starting out quite loud and chaotic, and then coming to a crashing halt with an abrupt change in tempo, tone, and overall mood early on in the song, causing you to almost forget the chaos that invaded your ears just minutes earlier.
Check out the album in its entirety on Spotify, Bandcamp, and Youtube. - Newsdust
Discography
Still working on that hot first release.
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Bio
Raised on a tranquilizing shoreline in Connecticut, Spencer Sabo spent his youth learning the drum set, making crazy films with his brother, and exploring his creativity. In high school Spencer found likeminded peers and started playing drums in a band. Here he began his journey of learning the ins and outs of audio production, recording and mixing the songs they created. It wasn’t until the age of 17, when Spencer began experimenting with an old keyboard, that Mind The Journey was born. He made sure that what was in his head was the exact way his creation came out. This lead to Spencer releasing his first dreamy 8 song EP, of which gained buzz both online and locally, with him playing shows in the New England area. After the release of his EP, Spencer moved to Boston. An almost-man and adrift introvert, he recorded his first 12 track album entitled Color In The Gray Machine in his DIY basement studio. Spencer is now settled in Philadelphia, playing live shows and embracing the musical scene, bringing along two other musicians on stage.
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