By Bangers
The 10 Greatest Ambient Tracks Of All Time

Ben Seretan – Allora
Tiny Engines

Six-string drone maestro Ben Seretan was in more of a traditionalist indie-guitar mood with his limber Youth Pastoral, an amped-up folk-rock record dropped a nanosecond before COVID hit. While beloved by critics, it never broke out in a big way—overshadowed, in terms of streaming numbers, by 2021’s Cicada Waves, his pandemic-era record of piano improvisations set against ambient nature sounds. 

But as new-song-a-week newsletter My Big Break proved, Seretan never liked committing to a single genre. His muse could weather any global crisis. 

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What’s great about his sharp new LP, Allora, is how, even more than on Youth Pastoral, Seretan has imbued his songs with a newfound confidence, like on eight-minute opener “New Air,” which pulses with krautrock rhythms as his deft guitar lines grow increasingly incendiary. The original version, from 2012’s New Space, was sparse and minimal, but here it threatens to blow out your speakers with anthemic posturing. Mix in tracks like the yearning “Bend” and the lightly galloping “Jubilation Blues,” and it feels like Seretan has settled into a new identity, where his voice and guitar work in unison like never before. 

While all of Allora breathes with a refreshing energy, some of the material is too busy playing homage to his inspirations: “Every Morning Is A” wouldn’t be out of place in the Phil Elverum/Microphones universe, and “Climb the Ladder” has clocked in more than a few nights at the Neutral Milk Hotel (especially on the final group-sing, where his voice turns into a remarkable Jeff Mangum imitation). They’re still lovely songs, but Allora is strongest when it sounds like Seretan carving a unique path, with tunes that could only be (and will later be) described as definitively Seretan-ian. GRADE: B+

Tiny Engines

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