Good Emotional Man

Good Emotional Man is the alter ego of Minneapolis native Sam Walker. In the words of fellow musician Dylan Hicks,

“One of the things you notice about Good Emotional man is that he performs in an orange papier-mâché  mask molded from a beach ball. It looks hot (both senses, kind of) and puts him in the tradition of the Residents, Daft Punk and Deadmau5. He tells me it’s safe…

“I first got to know his music through the songs he does with Sam & J or under his own name: harmonically savvy, bookish art-folk miniatures sung in an invitingly froggish voice. His warmth, eccentricity and sophistication carry over when he does business as Good Emotional man but the music is strictly instrumental.

[The tracks of his] “roomy and infectious album Laughter Helps… are built on laugh tracks, of a sort, light conversational laughter from field recordings, of a sort, made during Walker’s shifts catering coffee, graduation parties and other events. He then samples, manipulates and processes fragments of the laughter to create grainy percussive elements and oneiric atmosphere.”

Hear Laugher Helps on Bandcamp

 
 
“G.E.M. samples, manipulates and processes fragments of laughter to create grainy percussive elements and oneiric atmosphere... the album can recall ECM guitar records but is mostly a meditative, stuttering set of ambient pieces with distinctive composerly and conceptual aims.”
— Dylan Hicks

“Most of the laughter is recognizably human, but some of it has been elasticized and reminds me of the barnyard sounds made by pull-string toys. On top of that are thoughtfully constrained guitar melodies and figures, prairies of drones and pads, and drums on three tracks beautifully played by J.T. Bates.

“Jazz-informed but not jazz itself, the album can recall ECM guitar records but is mostly a meditative, stuttering set of ambient pieces with distinctive composerly and conceptual aims.”

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