SOTD #108 // Phillip Oskar Augustine: 'Leopard Thighs'

Patience is an art that is slowly being lost as the hyper speed of modern life ever hastens around us. Between reading this, it’s likely that you’ll check your emails, have a look on Facebook, maybe even send off a little tweet or two, and that’s perfectly normal. It’s strange then, that the emerging music scene is one based around such ambience and subtlety. To suggest the rise of chillwave is an antidote to the speed of the world around us would be to overlook the fact that only a select group even know what the genre is, but it’s the antithesis of these brash times we’re in.

Though various blogs have lumped him in with the scene, it’s fair to say that Tyler Wallace will never be confused for the likes of Washed Out and Teen Daze. From Jacksonville, Florida, he makes music under the excellent pseudonym of Phillip Oskar Augustine, cutting his first full length, Unknown Patterns, whilst going through university. Whilst more reserved music is generally en vogue, ‘Leopard Thighs’ seems positively timid, meandering softly like a trickling brook, before it bursts into life with a flourish, a cacophony of jangly guitars and yelps, a torrent of melody unleashed.

Wallace’s work is certainly laid back and, yes, ‘chilled’, but never is it lazy or, worse, mundane. It might not quite bit an instant hit, but let the panicked rhythm of Phillip Oskar Augustine wash over you and you’re bound to find release.

Phillip Oskar Augustine: ‘Leopard Thighs’