The Steoples - Six Rocks (LP)

Some records don’t shout to get your attention. They look you in the eye and hold the moment still. Six Rocks, the 2017 Stones Throw full‑length from Los Angeles duo The Steoples, is one of those. The pairing is producer and synthesist Gabriel Reyes-Whittaker, known for his work as Gifted & Blessed and Frankie Reyes on the same label, and singer-songwriter Yeofi. Together they land somewhere between hushed folk-soul and heady leftfield electronics, a sweet spot that feels intimate but never small.

What strikes first is the restraint. Reyes-Whittaker leans on analogue synths and sparse drum programming, letting air sit between the notes. You hear the room in these tracks. Yeofi’s voice rides that space with a calm, conversational tone that’s closer to a confidant than a frontman. The mood suggests late night LA apartments, lights low, a few cables snaking across the carpet. Stones Throw has long been a home for artists who carve their own lane, and this sits comfortably alongside that tradition without aping anything from the catalogue.

The songs feel lived-in rather than laboured over. Grooves arrive in gentle, patient phrases, then drift away before you’ve had time to pin them down. When the harmonies bloom, they do it quietly, like a smile rather than a shout. There’s a particular way Reyes-Whittaker voices his chords, a rounded, almost liquid quality that listeners who know his Frankie Reyes recordings will clock straight away. But here it’s coupled to Yeofi’s clear-eyed writing, which keeps the abstraction grounded in recognisable, human stakes.

If you’ve spent time in Melbourne record store listening booths, you’ll know the kind of album I mean. You put the needle down just to sample, then you’re two songs deep and not moving. Six Rocks vinyl sounds tailor-made for that moment. The low end sits warm and smooth, the mids give plenty of detail to the vocal, and the top end never goes brittle. It’s a record that rewards volume, but also holds its shape at a whisper.

A couple of tracks have become quiet favourites among fans, the sort of cuts that pop up in carefully-curated radio sets and late-night mixes. The Steoples never chase a peak; they chase a feeling. Synth lines curl around the vocal like steam off a cup. Percussion arrives in soft, clipped patterns, often little more than a pulse to keep the room breathing. It’s the confidence to do less that gives the album its spine.

You can hear the wider Los Angeles story woven through it. Not the neon, but the open sky and the long, reflective drives. There’s kinship with the community of producers who value touch and texture, yet the duo’s palette is firmly their own. Where some LA records lean into maximal beat science, Six Rocks prefers a quieter kind of alchemy. It invites you closer, then closer again.

On a practical note, Stones Throw did right by this one. The pressing is clean, the artwork sits nicely in the hand, and it’s the kind of sleeve you’ll keep facing out on the shelf because it just looks right. If you’re hunting The Steoples vinyl, this is the copy to find, and it pairs well with Reyes-Whittaker’s Frankie Reyes releases if you’re building a little corner of that world at home. For anyone looking to buy The Steoples records online, it’s not a hard one to source, and most good shops stocking vinyl records Australia-wide have seen copies come and go. I’ve spotted it in the wild more than once, and it never lasts long.

As a full statement from a duo who’ve moved in and around LA’s experimental soul orbit for years, Six Rocks lands with graceful certainty. It doesn’t lecture, it doesn’t lunge for hooks, and it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It creates a pocket of time that feels remarkably human, then trusts you to meet it there. If you’re exploring The Steoples albums on vinyl, start here, and if you already know the duo, this one deepens the affection. Six Rocks vinyl belongs in the stack you reach for when the night’s quiet and the room decides what comes next.