I first found this album at a thrift store maybe 6 years ago, when I was first starting to get into Cassette tapes. it was this, the Indigo Girls self titled album, and some bible stories for kids that were my first pieces of media on the format. I had a cheap-o portable cassette player that i'd bring to school with cheap earbuds in what I refer to now as my 'quirky kid' era. I'd wear Hawaiian shirts, rock a fanny pack and flip-up sunglasses, and listen to Kim Pensyl on the bus. It was a dark time.
Thankfully, unlike my taste in fashion, Pensyl Sketches holds up incredibly well! it features 8 tracks, with a mix of FM-synth heavy upbeat tunes and slower piano melodies. The standouts on the album are definitely The Morrocan Junction and the first track on side 2, The Doctor Is Out. Are You Ready? and Calida are also lovely, I find myself humming them all the time. Unfortunately I can't seem to find Calida anywhere on Spotify, but it is out there on YouTube. In fact, this album isn't on Spotify at all, but many of its songs are included in the Pensyl Sketches Collection, which covers the best of Pensyl Sketches 1-3. I've only listened to number 1 and the collection at the time of writing this, so I can't speak on the other 2.
If you're like me and you survive mostly off of Jazz and Fusion tracks with that definite late 80's twang, then Pensyl Sketches and Kim Pensyls other records will be sure to tickle your fancy. The slower piano isn't really my thing, but it's wonderfully made and helps to split up the driven, energetic tracks between. You can't do all synth all the time, right? Sadly accessibility seems less than stellar, I wasn't able to find every track off this album on YouTube, and while they are up on the Internet Archive I believe they need to be checked out. However you access your music, give Kim Pensyl a listen. It's great background music!
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