160g audiophile black vinyl record housed in a 3mm matte jacket. Full color center labels. Black poly innersleeve. Shrinkwrapped. Edition of 200. Amparo - Keep Your Soul Young (Past Inside The Present, 2025)
On her debut album for Past Inside The Present, Lela Amparo reaches beyond her accomplished ambient guitar work to create a sonic environment that incorporates a vast array of elements, including IDM and Trip-hop rhythms, sweeping orchestral arrangements, and understated, poetic vocals. Keep Your Soul Young is built on a confident rawness and worldliness, influenced by Amparo’s upbringing in the American Southwest, subsequent years of international travel, and a life-changing love that led to her current home in Gothenburg, Sweden. Across its ten pieces, she offers a rare combination of cinematic grandeur and withdrawn, tender grace, brimming with gorgeous melodies and head-nodding drum programming.
Opener, “Space Us Out”, enters on a swell of synthesized strings and gripping low end kick pattern, immediately summoning a city-sized emotional pull. Its beat comes into focus alongside a beautiful piano loop, while other melodic elements and voice samples drift in and out of the foreground, creating the uncanny feeling of waking up in orbit. “You Say You Love” comprises harp, choral voices, and other carefully treated sounds that flicker across the landscape, carried by a bouncy two-step that pulses and crunches in a way that suits it to the dancefloor as much as to a solitary walk in the deep woods.
“Rose & Honey” floats above a steady bass hum and syncopated keys, while introducing Amparo’s dulcet voice through a spoken word passage based on her time in Tokyo. “From the happiness of the sun and warm weather, to the sadness of isolation, confusion and jet lag,” she says about its origins, “I remember so vividly the honest discussions I had with myself as I wandered various neighborhoods, feeling overjoyed, but also nostalgic, knowing it would all soon become a memory.” “Wrong Thing” sustains this tone through its skittering, Burial-style rhythm, soft melodies and vaporous, pitch-shifted vocals, making for a darkly tinged, propulsive standout.
“Riptides” saw the longest evolution of all the tracks on Keep Your Soul Young: ”I felt torn on how heavy or hopelessly romantic I wanted it to sound,” Amparo says, “then I realized I could do both, but just needed to find a middle ground to introduce each mood.” Fittingly, its extended build leads into a wall-rattling kick, countered by a grainy melody that sparkles through a diffuse cloud of rich ambience. “The Ghost Who Never Moves” combines harp, strings, chimes, and buried vocals, while a steady thump-clack appears intermittently, leaving room for widescreen harmonies and a broad range of lush textures.
The album’s final third concisely demonstrates the impressive depth of Amparo’s stylistic ambition, from the eruption of speaker-hopping rhythms on “Modern Monuments”, to the tantalizing brevity and somber Drum ‘n’ Bass of “Soulmate From The Archive”. Despite being the closing track, “O.K. Corral” employs a kinetic, head-nodding sway and interwoven synth lines that suggest an open end, leaving the same type of deep impression and lasting charm as the travels that inspired these songs.
Keep Your Soul Young is, across its many landscapes and modalities, about remaining at home with yourself, no matter your physical location. As a culmination of her journeys and extensive experimentations – both as a musician and renowned visual artist – Amparo states that “the contrast of places I’ve experienced has made me truly appreciate my roots in retrospect, while also allowing me the ability to carve out a new space in the world, and to feel an essential continuity between the two.”
I got the mystery tape box specifically the "your getting tons of tapes" tier
and it didnt disappoint at all packaged securely overdelivered in the best way in terms of content and didnt take long to get here ,it was exciting to finally see what i got, genuinely made my day when it came in the post, a massive 22 tape package and so far every tape ive listened to has been really really good! Quality all the way, and if anyone was on the fence about getting it, well dont be, go for it you wont be disappointed .
Major respect to whoever curates the box, excellent choices!!
I Usually never leave reviews of things but this was worth doing it for.
I will definitely be buying this again no doubt about it and yeah just awesome really, very happy with it :)
It took a long time to arrive ( mainly because i put the wrong address😅) but overall its an amazing track. Thanking Cory from inner Amazing website and will buy more records from here.
The vinyl itself is very beautiful, and the sound is very punchy and clear! Of course all the tracks slap hard. Really great pressing, really great album!
I discovered the Bless Vol. 1 compilation a few years ago. Some of my favorite lo-fi artists were featured on it, and last year I reached out to the label hoping to get some of their releases.
Cory got in touch with me and personally made sure the record arrived safely. It sounds incredible, and the editions are beautifully produced.
Now I'm eagerly waiting for Vol. 1
Greetings from Argentina!
Really big fan. It’s a solidly built player and I think the aux-in recording function and ability to pair Bluetooth headphones/speaker is really unique, especially on the same device. I can’t speak to the Bluetooth pairing as I haven’t tested it out. I specifically was looking for an aux-in recording cassette player and this fit the bill perfectly. I tested this function and it sounds really great without completely losing the charm of a mic recording.
It was packaged perfectly! Everything that it came in was great, too!
HOWEVER, the page for this product does have a preview of all the songs ASSUMED to come with the album. This is not the case. This album comes with everything EXCEPT: September Rain (English Version)
With the previews available, I thought it'd be there. I was apparently missinformed. That is the ONE AND ONLY issue I have with my purchase. I wish they gave you the EXACT track list on the webpage. But like I said, that'd the only issue I had. Everything else was great.
I've been looking for an original copy of this album for a while at a price and quality that I was happy with. I was thrilled to find this on your website and couldn't pass up the opportunity to support you and support my unhealthy collection.
Excellent, can not recommend highly enough. My new go-to for Japanese import vinyl. Reasonable price, fast ship time. Will definitely be telling all 1 ½ of my friends interested in vinyl about Inner Ocean.
This album is truly fantastic. I have the cassette as well, it's so dynamic and interesting to listen to on both the turntable and in my case the player with headphones! blips is also just a very talented artist and incredibly kind person, sent me a short to make up for the shipping delay with the vinyl.
I can't say enough nice things about inner ocean and the artists on here. Interesting work from very talented people, great deals on buying multiple tapes and records, professional and kind customer service, I've honestly never had a bad transaction from inner ocean and I look forward to my next purchase! Thanks all!
Legit and amazing quality!!! These are my very first two vinyl albums and I just love how these two turned out! Would definitely recommend Inner Ocean Records to those who enjoy collecting vintage Japanese albums.
Most beautiful cassettes on earth as always. Every Inner Ocean release is an instant classic and everything I’ve ever ordered (cassettes, vinyl, merch) always comes quick and very well packaged. Best record label out!
Absolutely PHENOMENAL transaction, adding a piece of Casiopea history to my collection. Shipped fast, packed well, and Always a pleasure to do business with. Not my first Inner Ocean order, and FAR from my last! Again, many thanks to the IO crew!
I’m so glad to be able to have my favorite casiopea album on vinyl and it play wonderfully. Would say it got here quickly but alas the Canadian post strike happened not too long after I ordered it. But all in all I will definitely be ordering more from here.
Favorite Miki album. The added posted was wonderful surprise. Inner Ocean Records shipping and customer support is top notch. Can’t wait for my next purchase!
This is my first entry into the Lofi Snacks series after bumbling into the Inner Ocean label on Bandcamp and looking up their website. And my, what can I say other than it has been a delight! Really fresh vibey beats that sound great digitally on on my desk cassette player. The art is also fantastic and I love the print on the cassette itself. I've had this album on repeat since it arrived Monday. Look forward to exploring more of the Inner Ocean catalogue.
One of the greatest records in my collection! There are few legendary records that scratch the sonic itch this one does. Love the addition of the obi strip. Inner Ocean delivers greatness yet again!
