ABSRDST Samples Ryan Trecartin Movies On Rhetorical New Track, “Do I Sound Good”

Samples include: vocals from Center Jenny and Comma Boat, plus unfettered joy.

July 02, 2015

If you type do i sound good into Google, you'll get a bunch of hits teaching you how to approximate what your voice sounds like to others, and, of course, how to make yourself sound better. Jack Vanoudenaren, a producer hailing from Boston who makes music as ABSRDST, has a new track that flips one person's anxiety-ridden search engine query into a playful rhetorical question for all of us. "Do I Sound Good," premiering today on The FADER, features those sweet buoyant synths that a lot of us have come to love about our SoundCloud heavy rotation.

For this track, Vanoudenaren samples two of L.A.-based artist and RISD alum Ryan Trecartin's films, Center Jenny and Comma Boat. "Ryan Trecartin is one name on an extremely short list of people that changed everything for me," ABSRDST told The FADER, "He takes the most abstract parts of internet communication and makes them physical, visceral. It’s hard to put your finger on, but there’s something strikingly relatable in his work." There's something relatable about the jubilant result of ABSRDST's sampling, too. Besides being a slice of really great electronic production, the track is earnest and sincere. ABSRDST replaces the aesthetics-obsessed cynicism underlying a lot of internet-based music with feisty declarations and tongue-in-cheek cover art reminiscent of those cheesy and nostalgic Now That's What I Call Music compilations. Does it sound good? Of course it does—and apparently Trecartin is a fan too, according to ABSRDST's people—listen below.

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ABSRDST Samples Ryan Trecartin Movies On Rhetorical New Track, “Do I Sound Good”