Corey Mastrangelo

A vast mesh of analog and digital networks informs Long Distance Station to Station (LDSS), the solo debut from musician Corey Mastrangelo. Across eleven songs exploring and recreating the experience of finding solace in all forms of radio, Mastrangelo craftily modulates between threads of upbeat, cunning post-rock and cleanly arranged yet intricate electronica. Organic sounds and electronic sources blend consciously on LDSS, infused with Mastrangelo’s touch for balanced hooks that occasionally pop with polyrhythmic subtleties and deep, enrapturing texture. During the isolation of 2020, Mastrangelo found a home in radio. Being a forever musician with an extensive resume and profound curiosity for music and its creation, it was comforting for him to scan and become lost among frequencies and different broadcast forms—freeform radio like WFMU and web radio beacon NTS were fixtures of this time. Mastrangelo’s time in the experimental rock group Vasudeva further imbues the wide-spectrum spirit of LDSS with a decade of experiences that saw him enmeshed in an array of musical styles and scenes. Stylistic curios abound throughout Long Distance Station to Station much the same as they do when tuning your FM dial, but here they present with an artful cohesion. On opener “50” Mastrangelo offers a quasi overture of the record, with leads changing on a dime from acoustic guitar to arp’d and flanged synths that drive in the opposite direction, only to be suddenly pulled back into another acoustic-led phrase. These structural shifts and idiosyncrasies light the path of LDSS: “Music for Air” starts with a boastful, noodling synth before settling into a smooth climax with nods to Prince; “Left Before” produces bright triumph with acoustic guitar melded into phased, asymmetrical synth loops; chugging closer “Standby” is half the pace of everything before it, its slowness enlivened with Mastrangelo’s penchant for acoustic phrasings. Such contrasts guarantee that listeners will never end up where they started, a clever and expansive reinforcement of Long Distance Station to Station’s overarching radio analog. ~ Will Osiecki