Two months back, FADER premiered "Read My Mind," the third track on Chicago map-maker J Fernandez's debut full-length, Many Level of Laughter. Today, we're streaming the entire classic-sounding, American-feeling, self-recorded thing.
Fernandez, who was born in Arkansas but lives in Chicago, writes songs in a musical language that's seemingly influenced by folk, krautrock, and sunny 1960s pop. The resulting aesthetic is calmly psychedelic, a stew of sleepy organ melodies, hypnotic grooves, and multi-tracked vocals. It's definitely pleasant but also, at times, kinda sad: You laugh at everything/ there is no joke, Fernandez sings on gauzy highlight "Apophis," just a few measures before the song melts into a moody, 90-second instrumental "breakdown." The section perfectly demonstrates the way the record is strange and inviting at the same damn time. Many Level of Laughter officially drops next week via Joyful Noise.