On any given day, anywhere from a few to several dozen platters are stacked in my Vox app. Some hail from the distant or recent past, others from the present, and the rest represent the future—i.e., review copies of upcoming releases. There’s no rhyme or reason for where the albums and EPs land beyond my ever-changing moods, however. It makes for some wild stylistic shifts, from mad disco beats to folky laments to ambient jazz to old-school R&B to…well, you get the idea. On the flip side, there are moments when the music flows from one album to the next like a river to the sea.
For much of the last few weeks, Adam Rudolph’s jazz-imbued Invisible Threads—released last Friday—had been the sea, aka the final destination, with a dozen-or-so tributaries feeding into it. On Thursday, however, I received a Bandcamp notification that a long-ago pre-order, Miyaxx’s Hold Your Ego Out Like a Sun, was available for download; as a result, it’s followed Invisible Threads for the past week, with the world music flavors of Rudolph’s outing flowering into something as grand, though more ambient. It’s laidback yet taut, hushed mantras that explode into folk ’n’ roll, with electric guitars that cut through a lush soundscape accented by wordless harmonies, electronica flourishes, acoustic guitars, and gentle percussive beats. The Bandcamp description dubs it “fuzz folk,” which works.
Miyaxx, for those not in the know, consists of guitarist-songwriter Lea Thomas, whose Cosmos Forever turned my head in late 2024, and her life partner/musical collaborator, percussionist-audio engineer John Thayer; they’ve been making music together for some time, including on Cosmos Forever, but this is their first official release as a named duo. The 11-track, 34-minute outing is an anti-anxiety tonic set to song, just about. It opens with “Blue Cloud White Sky,” a tasty elixir that blends folk, folk-rock and surrealism to nice effect. “What Gathers at Dusk” introduces electronica elements, while a reverberating electric guitar crashes against a flitting acoustic. The title track, for its part, plays like a mantra, and also adds a philosophical quotient to the goings-on.
The evocative “Go Easy” simultaneously expands and constricts said mantra, while the acoustic-driven “Everything Leans Towards Light” is an atmospheric delight. The brief “Laying Down Your Name” maintains the mood, watering the “Night Garden” that follows. “The Shape You Make Returning” furthers the feel, with wordless vocals floating like wispy clouds high in the sky and an electric guitar serving as biofeedback. The gentle “Carry Your Love” tackles hope, love, and letting go; it’s the most traditional of the songs. “Stones Remember Rain,” on the other hand, is ambient to its core, while the closing “What Gather at Dawn” serves as a wordless maxim.
Whether fuzz or ambient folk, Hold Your Ego Out Like a Sun is a remarkably evocative set that’s sure to induce calm during life’s storms. It’s atmospheric and hypnotic, the kind of album that plays well in both the early morning and late night—and, too, in the car while navigating hurdy-gurdy traffic. As a whole, it reminds me of David Crosby’s esoteric 1971 opus, If I Could Only Remember My Name…—a high compliment, that. It’s a beautiful work.
