Creating Space (Asher Postman)

Just as the title claims, Asher Postman's debut album is all about "Creating Space" in your mind.

Ever a religious follower, Asher Postman uses motifs of Christianity to channel his faith into emotion, and though I'm not a Christian myself, the end result remains unchanged. Crystal-clear melodic house production, liquid breakbeats and vocals that exude innocence, "Creating Space" is itself spacious and almost therapeutic. Upbeat house bops make way for reflective ballads, that make way for house bops again, gently pushing the tracklist along to the end. Asher Postman's self-sung vocal is a particular highlight here —  almost reminiscient of acts like Porter Robinson (whom he even references in "Unoriginal"), his vocal carries an air of purity to it, one that feels genuine in its interactions with the album's changing moods and tones — and though the lyricism behind it isn't always the strongest, Postman is (for the most part) able to carry on vocal sound alone. The production is solid, too — "Creating Space" doesn't posit the flashiest of production styles, but the bubbly melodic take Asher Postman tries works well, complete with some very fun (albeit a little annoying at times) vocal chops and lyrical hooks; and it may not be the most impressive of projects, but it's an addictive little album that feels very easy to listen to. Unfortunately, 'addictive' doesn't apply to every track. Whilst nonetheless well-made, it feels like the creativity on a couple of these cuts is lacking, and many of them fade away from memory immediately after listening. What's arguably more unfortunate is the spreading out of these fluff tracks, so even the more memorable ones feel a little lost in the sea of unmemorable cuts. "Creating Space" sacrifices some creativity for mood, as any mood album must do, but then it sacrifices its mood as well by way of not quite having that atmospheric sensibility it should. The motifs are strong, but motifs can only take you so far, and "Creating Space" ends up feeling like a little bit of a slog to get through. There's some brilliant stuff here, like the closer "Deconstruct / Reconstruct" or the earworm of "Clear My Head", but they simply just aren't surrounded by a strong accompanying tracklist to truly feel like properly strong tracks.

I suppose not being Christian does also remove me further from the album's target audience, as some of the Christian sampling does feel a little on-the-nose, but I don't particularly mind it per se. The long of the short is, whilst I think this is a great album and would recommend it to people, I simply just don't think it's the right kind of interesting for me — though Asher Postman clearly has some nice ideas and a great voice to match.