Recommended Early Warnings (Music) Soundboard
Mutual Benefit, Ricky Eat Acid, Thin Hymns

When: Thu., Sept. 25, 9 p.m. 2014
Price: $12

Maryland producer and singer-songwriter Sam Ray never sticks to a single style for long, but lately he’s spent most of his time on three diverse projects: gritty fourth-wave emo band Teen Suicide, experimental solo project Ricky Eat Acid, and lo-fi pop group Julia Brown. Ricky Eat Acid has elbowed its way to the front of the pack, though, especially since January’s ambient Three Love Songs (Orchid Tapes) sold out its first run—250 LPs and 100 cassettes—in less than 48 hours. It was inspired by a three-month period in late 2012 when Ray would wander around the woods instead of attending classes at the University of Maryland in Baltimore County, and its hushed tracks feel like meandering off a peaceful forest path in autumn, even without the sound of leaves crunching underfoot. “In My Dreams We’re Almost Touching” punctures the album’s serene, translucent synths with a steady house beat beneath a swirling sample of someone singing Drake’s “Take Care,” and it hints at what Ray would do next: in July he self-released a hyperactive, glitchy EP called Sun Over Hills, which he tells me bears the influence of the time he’s spent bouncing around Brooklyn and traveling up and down the east coast playing shows. —Leor Galil