Trip hop ホープ Hope and Soar #triphop #chill #electronic

•June 14, 2018 • Leave a Comment

I know I’ve had a lot of chilled tracks this week but that happens when I’m tired. Here are a couple more lovely tunes but with more of a trip hop air and some crunchier beats from Common Tiger and Day Brake.

Day Brake (Wouter Van Houdt) from Belgium first with Soar. A relaxed but hip hop beat swinging tune with a great use of old radio samples to drive the tune along and adding some extra colour to the track. The tune rests heavily on the beats and has a loping grace to it. Despite some broken beats the whole thing is lovely and dreamy. Give up, lie back and let this wash over you.

Free download: www.toneden.io/day-brake/post/soar-free-download

Next, Common Tiger from Oregon, USA. A more piano driven track but still with some crisp hip hop beats. There’s something terribly romantic about the track, even if the title Hope seems to be taken from a MLK quote “We must accept finite disappointment, but never lose infinite hope.” The combination of synth piano and almost harp strings makes this have a lovelorn wistfulness. Endearing.

Available from Bandcamp on a ‘name your price’ basis.

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Deep house duo from Splimis and Monality #deephouse #house #electronic

•June 13, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Two chilled deep house tunes from Splimis and Monality. A US / Turkey offering.

Monality first. New to me, this is a duo of Allen Hulsey and Erdem Tunalı. The tune – Bad Time Stories – is the title track from their new EP. The deep house warmth is given a chilled atmosphere with some tech house beats. The whole thing is given a wonderfully psychedelic spin (there’s almost a bit of Led Zep’s Kashmir here) through the addition of Baglama (Turkish Saz). Ends up with a spacey, trancey feel that fills any place you’re in.

Next, from New Jersey, USA, Splimis. The tune is Gates, taken from the Lunar EP. This is altogether warmer but still chilled in a relaxed kind of way. The key to this track is the ascending, almost chiming, refrain that makes this such an uplifting and positive tune. It then largaly takes away the beats in the central section to stop and dream before coming back towards the end. Another great summer beach track.

Whole Lunar EP here

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Celebrate solar cycles with “Things to Come Mix” by Treasures #house #electronic

•June 12, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Here’s a 50 minute mix of original music that’s from sunrise to sunset and back again. I know that’s quite a commitment in these blue light corrupted nano atention span days but do give it a whirl. It’s a really well constructed piece, starting slow and then building itself up. It’s a very leftfield house vibe on this with a big sloppy dose of electronica. Like the jellyfish in the picture, the track is drawn towards the light again, slowign itself down over the final 10 minutes. A great diurnal electronic journey.

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To the first day of summer A Stranger In A Familiar Place: Lion, Meet Lizard and The Dwelling Light #downtempo #electronic

•June 11, 2018 • Leave a Comment

A fascinating pair of downtempo tunes to start the week from Lion, Meet Lizard and The Dwelling Light.

The Dwelling Light first. From New Zealand the track is Stranger In A Familiar Place. It’s that sensation of what was a place of belonging become change. Very much what if feels like these days to return to where I was brought up. At one level really rather familiar and similar and yet at another all very, very different and I don’t belong. The tune is brass infused at the start but then takes a more downtempo turn with a wistful air despite the periodic reappearance of the brass. Melancholy set to music. Wallow in it.

Next, Lion, Meet Lizard (Chris Tieken). Dutch obviously. Offers To The First Day of Summer. There’s more of a post rock thing going on in this one. Lots of guitars which get quite intense in places but still manage to retain a downtempo feel. The intensity ebbs and flows with more paused sections in which the plucked guitar shimmers delicately before returning to the drums and electronics. A lovely instrumental indie electronica feel to all this. Go get a download a slip him a couple of quid.

And the whole Everything I Do Is For A Reason EP

Bandcamp (name your price)

or Spotify

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And now for something a bit more awkward: BLOC | I-VT #ambient #illbient #electronic #noise

•June 10, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Sundays are for something more difficult. In a break with my recent techno ventures, here’s some unashamedly experimental arty electronic noise from I-VT (Involuntary Visual Texture).

BLOC is a collection of noise from I-VT supported by a diverse bunch of more than a dozen guest instrumentalists, producers, and remixers. This is, naturally, a bunch of urban dystopian noise. It’s the lead-footed reving of double decker buses, the whine of deliveroo scooters, the roar of street cleaning trucks. A love affair with harsh reflective soundscapes. An IDM techno fest of the scraping of your soul. Abandon all positivity. Retreat into introversion.

And, yes, of course it comes on cassette. Red, mind. Would you expect less?

Blurb: Inquiring into the experiments and techniques taught at the Underground Producers Alliance (UPA), Adam
Cuthbért’s spectral techno project I-VT releases its debut full-length album, BLOC, on UPA Records.

BLOC’s 52-minute program, following 2017’s CONSTITUENT EP(slashsound), presents a complex array of tangled rhythms, swarming drones, transforming vocal cuts and distorted melodies that hit deep on a sound system. Supported by a diverse bloc of more than a dozen guest instrumentalists, producers, and remixers, I-VT explores the tense air of a nervous sociopolitical environment festering in the depths of the collective NYC psyche.

Field recordings of protest nights and sonic Brooklyn street scenes punctuate themes of anxiety and over-
whelmedness as the composer traces the coarse edge between communal optimisim and solitary nihilism.

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Techno two ways from P Blasio and Augusto #techno #electronic #melodic #progressive

•June 9, 2018 • 1 Comment

A couple of European producers in P Blasio and Augusto producing contrasting techno tunes.

P Blasio from Hungary first. On Ariana he produces a cool sounding track but with an underlying widescreen intensity. The drums are quite precise but there’s still space for more melodic elements to come through. Even a bit of Italian cinematic score woven into the piece. Fine melodic techno for you to enjoy.

Next France’s Augusto with the slightly detached charms of Hot Summer Trains. The beats provide a chugging groove of the train’s wheels but elsewhere things are more spacey and abstract. This slips across the landscape in a hazy blur. It almost verges on German techo coolness in places, despite the heat of the title. Fine work.

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Modern Andy – With It #electronic #downtempo #triphop

•June 8, 2018 • Leave a Comment

Missouri’s Modern Andy moseys back with a new tune. With It focuses on the war between America’s two main politcal parties in a sample that adds a world weary tone to an already chilled laidback track. That matches my mood perfectly at the end of a week back after a week off. The painful process of getting back up to (and maintaining) work speed is taxing to say the least. And I’m dog tired. But this track is really, really delightful. A slow intro meets some gently plucked guitar and some soft beats. Prefect for ambient relaxing this summer.

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