Salami Rose Joe Louis - Akousmatikous (LP)

Salami Rose Joe Louis makes music that feels like stepping into a tiny planetarium set up in a bedroom, star maps taped to the walls, synths blinking like constellations. Akousmatikous, released on Flying Lotus’s Brainfeeder in 2023, leans into that intimate cosmos. It is a concept piece in the loose, playful way she does concept, full of short scenes, hushed voices, and melodies that tilt at odd angles. The title nods to the ancient idea of acousmatic listening, sound heard without seeing the source. That idea fits her perfectly, since so much of her charm comes from treating the voice and the synths as curious little sound objects, often darting across the stereo field before you can pin them down.

If you have followed Lindsay Olsen’s path, the science background is not trivia, it shows up in the way these songs orbit each other. She studied planetary science, worked in labs in the Bay Area, and she tends to build albums like ecosystems. Akousmatikous has that sense of scale and detail. Beats are soft and crumbly, almost like dust kicked up on a moon surface, while chords shimmer in pastel hues. She will set up a familiar lo-fi hip hop groove, then tilt it with a jazz voicing or a synth line that refracts the whole picture. It never feels fussy. The pieces are short, sometimes barely a minute, but they flow, so the album behaves like one continuous suite.

The writing is sneakily sophisticated. She loves close, clustered harmonies that recall West Coast spiritual jazz and the cracked sweetness of Broadcast. A melody will arrive as a simple lullaby, only to fold into an unexpected modulation that snaps your ear to attention. Her voice is a big part of the spell. It is breathy and near, treated like another keyboard at times, then suddenly intimate and plainspoken. When she lets a bassline push harder, you get a brush of Brainfeeder’s beat-school muscle, yet she keeps the temperature low, more candlelight than club.

Conceptually, there is a narrative arc running through Akousmatikous, an imagined society of listeners and an inquiry into what sound can do to a person’s perception. That might sound heady, but she keeps it tactile. You can hear the click of a sampler pad, the small-room reverb of a keyboard amp, the slightly detuned wobble of an analog synth waking up. Those textures give the record a handbuilt warmth that undercuts any whiff of sci‑fi coldness. She is not chasing spectacle. She is building a weird little world and inviting you to sit on the floor for 40 minutes and explore it.

Fans of her Brainfeeder debut Zdenka 2080 will recognize the through-line. That one sketched a climate fiction diary, and Akousmatikous feels like the inner monologue that follows, less dystopian, more curious. The new record is gentler, and in places even playful, but it still slips in those side-eyed warnings about overwhelm and escape. It is music for the late hours when you want your thoughts to unspool at their own pace, but you still crave surprise.

For anyone crate-digging, Akousmatikous is a lovely listen on wax. The low end is round and present, the synths sit in a luminous halo, and the interludes breathe in a way that suits the format. If you are hunting for Salami Rose Joe Louis vinyl at your favorite Melbourne record store, it is one of those sleeves you pull just to admire the Brainfeeder logo and the promise of a trip. And if you are sifting through a site to buy Salami Rose Joe Louis records online, this is the one that plays well front to back, a perfect nightcap for the turntable. People looking for Akousmatikous vinyl or exploring Salami Rose Joe Louis albums on vinyl will find this a keeper, especially if you shelve it near your left-field jazz, beat tapes, and late night pop. Even listeners in the ever-growing vinyl records Australia scene will appreciate how the album’s soft-focus production blooms through speakers.

What sticks after a few spins is how humane it feels. For all the theory implied by the title, the record never drifts into academic exercises. It is playful, a little eerie, and quietly emotional. That balance, brainy but tender, is rare. Akousmatikous is the kind of album you recommend with a smile, the kind you put on when a friend asks for something new but not loud, strange but not cold. It is proof that small sounds, arranged with care, can open up a universe.