Sunday is Ambient time with:4znek, and Project Tapeworm #Ambient #Drone #IDM

•July 12, 2020 • 1 Comment

Ambient Sunday’s theme is time, specifically time to look back at what was and what could have been with 4znek, and Project Tapeworm.

4znek is from Philadelphia, USA. He mainly does stuff that’s EDM but this one is definitely ambient. Times Past is the track. It’s not clear if this is a positive look back at the past of a wistful or sad one. This is a very modern ambient. It’s a chilled version of almost trap / hip hop in the beats which have a high end synthetic edge that’s offset by some strings that risk being saccharine in other hands. They serve to balance each other out to take ambient forward in new ways. All a bit ironic given the track title. It’s all lush and yet not especially romantic. A track that says it’s time to move on.

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Project Tapeworm is from the USA. It is the electronic side project of Inversions bassist Jade Joray Robbins, and inspired by the works of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross, The Dust Brothers and John Carpenter. The track is Old Times. It’s ambient but with a hefty does of IDM. There’s a central synth that takes a mournful tone but in a way that’s fractured and worn. It has a sense of those spliced tape experiments of the early 80s in its lo-fi appeal. It’s only two minutes but ineffably sad with an indefinable sense of longing. Hardly a surprise then when PT says, “I made this shortly after my brother nearly died twice in one day due to his own vices. It’s kind of become a theme to all of the good, but broken memories.” These are the important things.

Taken from the album Dissonant Synthesis

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Let’s get minimal techno with: Bryce Terry, and Father Space Cadet #Techno #Electronic #Minimal

•July 11, 2020 • Leave a Comment

It’s all USA today with tracks from Bryce Terry and Father Space Cadet. The mood is minimal techno but militant.

Bryce Terry music producer from Phoenix, Arizona. He says he’s into 80s sounding synths, low pass filters and tempo delay. Some of his work is in the synthwave vein but not this time.

Enter The Centre is a strange minimal space techno beast. It wanders in from synthwave borders only to spiral around a small unregarded yellow sun in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the western spiral arm of the Galaxy. It gets itself into a psychedelic ambient techno fizz. This gives an ambient sheen to everything but it has a restless and unpredictable nature. This is really very, very fine.

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Father Space Cadet is from Brooklyn, New York but is preoccupied with more earthly concerns. His debut track, America’s Funhouse is a BLM protest full of anger, anxiety and awareness. The track is dedicated to, “MADE FOR GEORGE FLOYD, BREONNA TAYLOR, ATATIANA JEFFERSON, AURA ROSSER, STEPHON CLARK, BOTHAM JEAN, PHILANDO CASTILLE, ALTON STERLING, MICHELLE CUSSEAUX, FREDDIE GRAY, ERIC GARNER, MICHAEL BROWN.”

The track is IDM techno as a constant minimal siren of noise and confusion. Samples pepper the track and the atmosphere is dense, foggy and dank. Beats pound away. Synths have roughened edges. This is anxious late nights. Too bright days with their harsh glare. This is danger round every corner. This isn’t an easy track to listen to. But that’s the very point. What are you doing when you hear the siren?

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Friday techno with: Julius Abel – Illusion #Techno #NewMusic #Melodic

•July 10, 2020 • Leave a Comment

And so some melodic techno for Julius Abel and Illusion. Based in Vienna, Austria, Julius Abel has been releasing music for the best part of a decade. His style is clean and bright with a definite commercial sheen.

Illusion is a slight step away from that style. For starters, it has no vocals. This is, as Julius says, “everybody should be able to interpret the “Illusion” of all the recent news and circumstances we are living trough the last couple of months.” This is a lovely light techno track using a guitar line that sounds perfectly natural in among the beats. Provides the guide through the track.

Synths largely soar but occasionally a hint of fuzzed edge emerges briefly to remind you that not everything is perfect. Reflecting on 2020, Julius says, “Just like the song it started off textured and smooth but evolved into a new, fast-paced and unknown environment.” This track reminds you that not everything is terrible despite all that has happened and to seek out the simple small pleasures in life.

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Deep house with: djogo – The Deep

•July 9, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Let’s dive into some deep house with sparkling depths courtesy of Djogo. Born in Rio de Janeiro and based in Amsterdam, Diogo Santos – AKA djogo – is a Brazilian bass player who has been producing electronic music for the past few years.

The Deep is today’s track. It’s a lovely positive track full of cheery moods and peaks. Synths have an analogue organic feel. It’s warm and life affirming. And yet, Djogo says, “A melodic deep house track inspired by change of moods. When I felt I hit rock bottom and the only way to go was going up. “Climbing Up From The Deep” was the original name.” You really wouldn’t get any of that. This is the depths as a comforting and reassuring place. It’s enveloping and kind. Move out of the shallows, come to the deep.

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Old school acid: Sync24 – Acid for blood #Acid #Techno

•July 8, 2020 • Leave a Comment

It’s midweek. To help you though today here’s an acid techno track from Sweden’s Sync24.

Sync24 is the solo project of Daniel Segerstad from Carbon Based Lifeforms. And the track is Acid for blood. It’s taken from the Acidious release.

It’s proper old school uncompromising acid techno. No quarter asked for. No quarter given. It starts with analogue sounding beats that take you back to the 90s and then we get a slurry of acid sounds that squirt everywhere. It’s all a bit Hardfloor here and Plastikman there. Like the intervening years never happened. But managing a odd freshness for something so consciously harking back. You want proper, proper acid? You come to the right place.

Acidious

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Guitar hip hop: Georgisound – Dias #Guitar #HipHop #Pop

•July 7, 2020 • 1 Comment

Here’s Georgisound from Germany with something that’s sort of guitar pop, sort of Latin blues, and sort of hip hop. The track is Dias. This isn’t my usual thing, as the electronics aren’t front and centre. That space is occupied by the guitar. But the synthetic beats and languid air gives it a chilled hip hop feel that’s for all to enjoy. This guitar has a melody that is wistful, melancholic and smacks of lost love. A reminisce of times now long gone. A walk in the park. The smell of sun baked grass. A sunny daydream. Join me.

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Deep house: Un1que – Private Ocean #DeepHouse #House #Electronic #Chill

•July 6, 2020 • Leave a Comment

sea

Here’s some chilled deep house from Un1que to get your week started. Un1que is from Poland. He is Lukasz Szafranski and his deep house comes with extra chill.

This track – Private Ocean – is one of the winners of Beatport Producer Challenge held in May/June 2020. It’s a delicious mix of deep house beats and chords but with some jazzy downtempo. The waves wash listlessly. It’s all terribly tropical in some indefinable way. This is proper hammock music. It sways gently. Even getting a drink is too much trouble. Perhaps the butler will bring it for you. There’s a bell on the table beside you. In the meantime, focus on the soft synth chords and that smidge of trumpet that emerges half way through to give it that air of jazz sophistication. Simply delicious.

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Ambient guitar with: elskavon, and Tristan Welch #Ambient #Drone #Electronic #Guitar

•July 5, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Ambient Sunday is focusing on the guitar this morning. Both artists – elskavon, and Tistan Welch – use guitar in their tracks. Sometimes clearly and sometimes a bit more hidden away. Sit back. Relax. Press play.

elskavon is Chris Bartels from Minneapolis. The track is River (Blue) from his forthcoming Patience EP. It’s a lovely, almost folktronica, track that lets the guitar be plucked gently and wander free. The surround is an IDM treasure trove of organic sounds offering a jittery, clattery, bobbling, babbling brook of sound. He says, “On this track, I used lots of recordings captured in Duluth last year – my friend went up to the area for a day and recorded all sorts of percussive sounds and textures – rocks, water, wood, metal, leaves – anything we could find.” It’s all machine and all organic simultaneously. And awfully cute.

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Bit of concentration required with this one. Tristan Welch is, “a musician, artist and activist based in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area.” His work is mainly creating soundscapes via electric guitar, treated with electronics. And that’s what you get here, spread across eleven minutes of sound.

Asset / Defect is an ambient drone piece but manages not to be too ‘droney’. It’s more waves of intermingling sound that come, pause, and retreat. You’d not really know there were guitars in here. It’s all been processed around. As a person in recovery, the title of the piece comes from the reckoning of positive and negative personality elements. As such the piece is a very inward looking one. The overall slow vibration of sound encourages a kind of contemplative or meditative air but with a hint of fuzziness that all is not well. A little oasis of near calm in an otherwise noisy over-stimulated world.

Bandcamp (CD available)

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Pub + Techno = Neon Core, and Blind Pharaoh #Acid #Techno #Electronic

•July 4, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Today is pub opening day here in England. There’s one at the top of my road. And we’re not well know as a society of restraint so it’s going to get very messy and noisy very quickly. Think I’m going to skip it in favour of some head battering acid techno from Neon Core and Blind Pharaoh.

Neon Core are Matt Davis and Beaumont Standford from Florida. They have a new Shapeshifter EP out. From this I’m featuring ten minutes of acid pleasure in Shapeshifter 3. This track has a total disregard for anything in the last 20 years or so. This is back to the 90s with a bang acid. Rather Richie Hawtin in its air of casual minimalism. Proper beats. An analogue sounding approach. Acid fizzing and breaking over you in waves. It’s a seductive, psychedelic, disorientating experience. Heavy as anything and utterly captivating.

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Next, Blind Pharaoh. The biog says not entirely helpfully, “From the ashes of our shared past comes the rise of ancient futures.” The track title is the reductive but helpful Strobe / Smoke / Acid. And that’s what you get. A happily old school acid track but with an odd use of old school funky drummer breaks before the acid takes over. It’s a pacey joyous affair. Doesn’t take itself too seriously but covers a range of 90s staples from the synth stabs, breaks and lost shout outs. This really really needs a club for full effect.

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New Music: Hell, it’s paradise · Maybe It’s Love #DeepHouse #Electronic #Techno

•July 3, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Some deep house released today from Hell, it’s paradise.

Hell, it’s paradise is French film director Victor Willems. Although he released a track in 2016 and has done a film soundtrack here’s a track from Heaven Is Near, his first EP.

The track is Maybe It’s Love. It’s a lush, deep, deep house tune that bleeds gently into synth techno. There’s a real romantic streak to it, centering on the movie dialogue in the middle of the track that gives it its name. Beats are synthetic and burbling. Synths have a dramatic and lovelorn quality almost becoming sax or guitar in places. It’s slightly retro in its Vangelis appeal. A widescreen love affair. Doomed of course. But, you know, love hurts. This track, life life, is filled with pleasure and pain.

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Heaven Is Near EP

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