SECRET SCHOOL
“There’s no way to listen to Secret School (aka Andrew Sutherland) without thinking of the word ‘lush’. Like a lot of producers these days, he puts forth a kind of dreamy, emotionally earnest maximalism. Think Baths, Flying Lotus, maybe a touch of Bibio and Delorean. Wherever this album takes place, it’s a pleasant place to be, filled with warm, floating tones, easy-going drums and vocal tracks mixed halfway down into the instrumentals to make it sound like Sutherland’s treading water in a backyard pool filled with liquid electro.”
-Ben Gray, The Weekly Dig
“Imagine yourself walking the treeline of a coastal groove-forest. Softly glowing neon trees border you on your right and synthesized waves of warm, electric blue liquid-rhythm lap the rocky shore on your left. Soothing psychedelic visuals adorn the infinitely starry sky above you, as a reverb-soaked, disembodied choir of shoe-gazing angels proclaim the club-hopping gospel from the heavens. Then, with no apparent warning, shimmering fireworks of sound explode along the horizon, lighting the dark, vast night as if it were day.
While a bit dramatized and adjective heavy, that’s pretty much exactly what it’s like to listen to Secret School, Bostonite Andrew Sutherland’s sure-to-blow-up-in-the-best-of-ways dance-pop project.
Countless crate-diggers and would-be Moog manipulators have taken to making glitchy but lush, often sample-adorned laptop music of late. But very few diamonds exist within the expansive, binary rough. In this writer’s humble opinion, Secret School is one of those diamonds. Though Sutherland is a New Englander to the core, Secret School reeks of Ibizian ambiance like a gloriously humid night out on the town.
Many electronic artists often fall into the trap of sounding like their primary descriptor; electronic. Cold, mechanic, sterile. But Secret School keeps it organic, bathing listeners in perfectly humanized beeps, blips and beats.”
–Steven Miller, Supertonic Media / Tea Party Boston
“…Sutherland fills the room with sounds, then sets them bouncing off each other to echo in the rafters. The result sounds more personal and far less sterile than most forays into the dance pop genre. It remains melancholy to its core but is catchy enough to not slow to a digital funeral dirge. ‘I should be having a good time, but it’s way too late, I got too old and fun don’t come for the last in line.’ Indeed it does not.”
Boston Band Crush
“This is pop music.” – Joshua Carlson, Sa1va7ion Blog
Buy Secret School’s LP “Twenties” on iTunes here
Download the free instrumental album Preschool here, or stream below.
booking or contact: secretschoolmusic@gmail.com