Ambient Sunday with: Kendl, Atmøsphäre, and Manne Skafvenstedt #Ambient #Drone #Electronic

•August 23, 2020 • Leave a Comment

A return to Ambient Sunday with Kendl, Atmøsphäre, and Manne Skafvenstedt.

Kendl (Jesse Kendal) is from Melbourne Australia. His music has an emotional quality that shines through his work. As he says, “There’s always beauty on the other side of darkness.” The featured track is Dwam, taken from his new Dreamlike EP.

I’d never heard the word Dwam before. But it appears it’s a Scottish word meaning a state of semi-consciousness or reverie. But with an Old English root meaning confusion. Kendl is focusing on the reverie end of things. There’s a focus on a slow slightly vibrating piano line with a bit of found sound drone behind. Strings are gradually drawn in. It’s all very slow and semi-conscious stuff. But it’s also peaceful. There’s nothing jarring or disturbing here. It’s warm and womblike. You wish you could stay here forever.

Dwam

Dreamlike [Bandcamp $5 AUD]

Atmøsphäre is a Belgian artist Tom Lievens. He focuses on creating deep atmospheric and cinematic ambient music. And the Shaman EP is no exception. I’m featuring Floral Scent from the EP. This is a six minute drift. In many ways it can feel like it doesn’t do anything. But it does capture a space in time and a mood. A really deep ambient track with natural found sound and the lightest of electronics. The electronics don’t so much drone as have tones which glide along. It’s all wonderfully weightless and held in midair with no visible support. Beautiful stuff.

Floral Scent

Shaman EP

And so to Scandinavia for something a little chillier. Manne Skafvenstedt is a pianist, composer and producer from Stockholm, Sweden. I know it’s a cliché to talk about Scandie artists and snow and whatever but it really felt as though it applied here. The track is What You Don’t Know from the unknown, untold EP. It is a slow and meditative track. But not quite calming. There are some lovely tones but Manne cleverly uses an edge of distortion to some of them that gives the track a bit of an ‘edge’ It also gives it a slightly brittle, cold and crystalline quality that sets this apart from the run of the mill drone tracks. Ambient that gives you a little shiver.

What You Don’t Know

unknown, untold [Bandcamp 56 SEK]

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Feel the love from: Tibasko – Reverie #Breakbeat #BrokenBeat #Electronic

•August 22, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Let’s get loved up this weekend with a new release from UK duo Tibasko.

They are from Hertfordshire, just North of London, and comprise Ken Petalcorin and Andy Bowden. Their stuff is a mix of breakbeats and melodic techno. And those fuse together brilliantly on their new single Reverie.

Opening as it means to go on with the “Feel the love” sample that peppers the track this offers dayglo colours and showers of glitter. It’s a widescreen tune that takes breakbeats to the masses in a superbly catchy fashion. Deserves to be a huge pop hit as well. Buckets of commercial appeal but also a satisfyingly tasty morsel for more discerning palettes. They manage a flow within the track that come and goes with almost chorus appeal and peaks so pretty they come tied up with a ribbon.

Late summer sunshine all in 3:51 minutes.

YouTube

Spotify

https://open.spotify.com/track/6P7dZrdYVyNmqHyv5XY4Yp?si=E4MIGbFpR8K9vhtDILh2ZA

Soundcloud

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Let’s hunker down with chilled hip hop from: KAMI, GOSON, and Wizard Death #Chill #StudyBeats #HipHop

•August 21, 2020 • 1 Comment

Storm Ellen approaches. The skies are dark and the wind is whipping up. I’m going to hunker down, clutch my coffee for reassurance and have some instrumental hip hop chill from KANI, GOSON, and Wizard Death.

KAMI (KamiLe カミ) is probably from Australia but I know no more. Let’s focus on the track, Swans. This is a lovely mix of hip hop beats and classical sounding piano and strings. It is fundamentally built around two chords. It’s harder than you’d imagine as the beats are quite forward in the mix. This doesn’t let you off the crash of emotions. There’s a lovelorn and windswept aching pain of love and despair. KAMI explains that, “I went for a jazzy, romantic vibe in this track. As mentioned by the vocal sample, the message I want to deliver is “you don’t know about real love. if you haven’t been near one.”” Contemplate the pain and promise of love here.

Next we move to Sweden with GOSON. This is a project from Henrik Göranson a Swedish producer, songwriter and a multi-instrumentalist from a small village just outside Gothenburg. He also operates as SOUNDGO & INRELOAD. Stop is his second release. This is hip hop as melodic chill. This is all about encouraging you to stop and cast your cares aside. There’s some gentle hip hop beats, some warming chords and a little guitar to tickle your synapses. A track as rich and comforting as a cup of hot chocolate. Settle down and listen.

 

http://developers.deezer.com/us/plugins/player?playlist=true&width=700&height=240&autoplay=false&type=album&id=161776312

https://open.spotify.com/track/0Y9jwpeVy15H8Eq6nqFFJj?si=am8-uqacQayTrvzwPWwSCw

https://embed.music.apple.com/us/album/stop-single/1524208253

And so to Wizard Death. From the US, offers as biog, “25 year old producer Wizard Death makes psychedelic calm music for the soul.” The track is Warpworld. It’s only tangentially associated with hip hop. It’s much more an experimental lofi chill. This has soft chords, anxious insects rubbing mandibles and a forest glade of dappled calm. It’s a lovely track that takes you off into the faery world. Guitars scatter themselves around like petals on the ground. A magic mushroom ride of a tune.

https://open.spotify.com/album/3Fq6Hp17pLoNoDfWN7FPlG?si=3P_fjurJTEOCc32nW-m7Cw

https://open.spotify.com/embed/track/2FIuAKA0cjMHv5WFuxdNE9

 

 

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Deep minimal house with: Drew Dapps X Womack – Universal Connection #House #DeepHouse #MinimalHouse

•August 20, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Few tracks come with soft furnishing advice. But this one from Drew Dapps X Womack does. Can your home stand up to its requirements?

Drew Dapps is a Music Producer and DJ based in San Diego, CA. He is known for his Deep, Minimal, and Tech House influenced sounds. But of Womack I know nothing. And deep minimal is what you get on Universal Connection. It’s one of those massively chilled tracks which make you want to look out to sea or into sunsets. It’s chilled and dreamy in a spaced out kind of way. Beats scatter around with bits of clicking wood. There’s a dub sense to the electronics and a profound vocal somewhere half-heard. And that’s the point. This is all about the mood the track creates rather than the track itself. Lovely evening chill.

As for soft furnishings, the accompanying blurb says, “This enlightening deep house tune was made for a sunset in southwestern Ibiza, in a day club with Egyptian cotton chaise lounges, fire pits, and Italian lights. The atmospheric synths, abstract percussion and rhythm motifs pair well with mango White Claws and old fashions.” I’m not sure my old wicker chair and lumpy cushion quite hits the mark. But I prepared to make do and neck some home made gin instead.

From the album Vinyl Cuts’ Essentials Vol 1

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Just chilling with: Koresma x Andrew Rothschild, Barstool Astronaut, and Frasco #Electronic #House #Chill #IDM

•August 19, 2020 • Leave a Comment

A triple set of chilled but gently leftfield tracks from Koresma x Andrew Rothschild, Barstool Astronaut, and Frasco.

Koresma (Ryan Lindberg) and Andrew Rothschild are both American and have both appeared here before on various lovely and chilled tracks. But never before together. The track is Alpine. It’s a wonderful mix of electronic and organic. The electronics click along with the shuffled beats and glitched sounds. But the organic comes from guitars which have less of an Alpine outdoorsy feel than a bit of porch based rocking chair noodling. It’s all deliciously laid back and lazy. They say that, “Alpine is a great tune for hikes through the woods to chilling in your hammock. .” I think I’ll stick to the latter.

Spotify

Bandcamp ($1)

Barstool Astronaut (Michael L. Schneider) is from Los Angeles via Denver.  He has a background as a drummer and operates across a range of electronic genres – hip hop, IDM, ambient and post-rock. The track is Between Souls And Cities and it has a mix of those genres. That gives it an engaging but slightly slippery quality. Just when you think you’ve got it sussed is slides off into something else. There’s gentle chilled tinkling allied with post-rock guitar shards. There’s almost but not quite hip hop rhythms and beats that don’t seem to follow a conventional 4/4 pattern. It’s all rather strangely lovely.

Spotify

Soundcloud

Frasco is a new young producer from Italy. He says that his work is in the vaportwitch style. But I’ve not the foggiest what that means. Seems, as far as a I can work out, to be a chilled version of IDM and bass music. Anyhow, the track is Riflesso (tr. Reflections). It’s a jittery, almost trap, undercarriage overlaid with some gentle bass music. Gives it a psychedelic dreamlike quality. An over-tired but over-caffeinated tune. This twitches along even as it tries to lull you to sleep. A dream of spiders and endless electronic genres. And perhaps because it doesn’t try to take too many liberties in the flow a rather satisfyingly chilled and deep track.

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The beauty and pain of life: Karolinksi – it hurts #Dub #Techno #Electronic #Downtempo #IDM

•August 18, 2020 • Leave a Comment

Some delicate Norwegian techno this morning from Karolinski.

From her for akasha album comes it hurts. As a reminder, Karolinski (Karoline Hegrenes) is from just outside Bergen, Norway but is now based in Oslo. This is more of that special Norwegian techno that shows techno isn’t all about grimy concrete and machines. It can be about water and snow.

There’s a fragile and mesmerising beauty to Karolinski’s work. That was apparent on I’m a Supergirl 02 in July and is writ large across the album and on it hurts. The tune is somewhere between ambient and techno and beholden to neither. It’s a lovely chilly and warming track. Despite the title there’s an absence of outright pain. This is delivering wonderful things in the slightly dubby synths. The beats are kept far off and hi-hat focused. It has a false ending half way through which just allows it to capture you twice.

A very, very special album.

it hurts

Spotify

Bandcamp

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Music of the dancing electronic insects with: immrcy – dream leakage #IDM #Electronica

•August 17, 2020 • Leave a Comment

It’s Monday. Let’s get something less usual out of the box. Here’s Texas beatmaker immrcy with dream leakage from the de(com) [exo] album. Never understood why avoidance of capital letters is very IDM but no matter.

immrcy says that dream leakage is, “a beat about a detailed dream, leaking and unraveling uncontrollably.” Perhaps, says I. To me this is more music of the micro scale. A place where it’s the mandible of ants clattering and the legs of grasshoppers clicking that provide the sounds and rhythms of the natural world. A squirt of gossamer here and a butterfly wing flutter there. The colour of fire ants and the slow ripple of woodlice. There’s lots of clicky noise at the starts that has that exoskeleton quality. A drifting dreamworld of tinkling sound. Eventually, it lift itself up from the ground to float around in guitars and strings before settling again. Just lovely.

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Ambient Sunday with: Chris Hyson and Fervorvore #Ambient #Chill #Drone #NeoClassical

•August 16, 2020 • Leave a Comment

A couple of ambient tracks for this Sunday from Chris Hyson and Fervorvore.

Chris Hyson is first up with Spoons. Chris Hyson is a London based multi-instrumentalist, producer and composer. His work has had a wide range of collaborators and a wide range of outlets. But Spoons is ambient as neo-classical. Not usually a genre that works for me. But there’s something here that packs a powerful yet subtle emotional punch.

The track is taken from a film but thankfully isn’t unduly cinematic. It works brilliantly as its own piece of music. The track’s curious title is explained by the nature of the film. It is from the due to be released soundtrack ‘Castle in the Ground’ (starring Alex Wolff, Neve Campbell, Imogen Poots, Keir Gilchrist and Tom Cullen). The plot summary is, “After the untimely death of his mother, a teenager befriends his charismatic but troubled next-door neighbor and becomes embroiled in a world of addiction and violence just as the opioid epidemic takes hold of their small town.”

The track is a swelling neo classical affair with found sound and analogue synths. It manages to evoke emotion from the start. It’s strangely affecting in the way that it manages a melancholic sadness among the held tones that rise and fall. It’s lost in the saddest of dreams, unable to escape. It is hard to imagine the film can deliver on the score. It’s that good.

Next, Fervorvore (Blaine Forrest) from Edmonton, Canada. His track is the curious Followed by Petrichor. And the music is as strange as the title. And that unsettled nature isn’t helped by his explanation that, “This song is the outro to my album about my love of music, it’s about achieving peace, either through death or artistic success.” It’s an ambient soundscape affair. Everything is kept rigorously minimal. Tones come singly or with little accompaniment. A piano tinkles in slo-mo. It turns at a glacial pace that reeks of silent despair and decay. This is how the world really ends; not with a bang but a slow gradual stop.

Album on Spotify

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Drum and Bass Duo with: Byrone Lehmann, and Mykool #DrumAndBass #DnB #Dance #Electronic

•August 15, 2020 • Leave a Comment

A couple of drum and bass tunes for a dreary Saturday morning. Both of these from Byrone Lehmann and Mykool are guaranteed to put a bit of pep into your day.

Byrone Lehmann is from the UK. He’s a motion designer – not sure I know what that is. No matter. Let’s get on and enjoy Polyplay. This is an unashamedly upbeat drum and bass track. It’s full of the joy of the season. It ascends all over the place. Like an irrepressible bouncing ball this is full of fun and love of life. The synths are a bit trancey and perkier than a small child who should have gone to bed hours ago this one is going to be up all night. Whether you like it or not. Lots and lots of fun.

Mykool is also from the UK and has a new Billet Doux // Blackwater release out now on the ever-reliable Nu-Venture label.

The track I’m featuring is Blackwater. It is, as its name suggests, a rather dark and uncomfortable track but with a smooth liquid flow. Ethereal vocals wander about. Synths are dreamy. But the beats are jet black and razor sharp. Mykool says of it, “Blackwater was made with moody intentions and a darker vibe in mind, using Rhodes chords designed to incite a chilled and mellow flavour, to perfectly compliment the contrasting deep bassline with it’s raw powerful Reese sound.” You’d better dive in while you still can.

Spotify

Billet Doux // Blackwater on Bandcamp

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Techno triple with: Justin Black, Torolf Stendik, and Cinder #Techno #MelodicTechno #Electronic

•August 14, 2020 • Leave a Comment

As a Friday treat here’s three techno tracks ranging from melodic techno through acid to some fierce techno courtesy of Justin Black, Torolf Stendik and Cinder.

Justin Black is first up with Just Kids. He’s from Phoenix, Arizona and the track is a melodic techno one baked to perfection into a crisp tasty whole. There’s a lovely spacey and spaced sense to this track. The lead synth bobbles airily around giving that sense of fun and optimism. It’s a lovely affair with beats keeping a respectful and unobtrusive distance. Almost ventures into downtempo but has to much of a sense of adventure to settle anywhere with it’s itchy dancing feet feel. Perfect early evening material.

Next it’s back to Europe for Torolf Stendik and the unfeasible entitled Bryggan Jam (Harald Björk Rise Like A Phoenix Version). We’re obviously in Northern climes here. Torolf Stendik is the pseudonym of Finnish artist Vesa-Matti Kivioja. And Harald Bjork is a Swedish artist.

They combine on the mammoth ten minute remix of Rise Like A Phoenix. This is a classic game of two halves, with sometimes the two halves going on at the same time – if that makes any sense. The first half and underlying sense of the track is a downtempo psychedelic Balearic ambient track that spirals out into the furthest reaches of the galaxy forever. Meanwhile, there’s a big acid monster stirring in the darkness. Slowly at first it awakes to wrestle with any suggestion of peace in space. It’s a titanic track of limitless ambition in which to gradually lose your mind.

Buy vinyl

And so to France and some more acid from Cinder. The track – Wildfire Part 1 (Blow-Up Mix) – is an adaptation of one from a live show. As Cinder explains, “As I have no clue about when I’ll be able to perform my acid techno lives how again, I was thinking that it was the right time to share with you some of the tracks I specifically created for this live show. Most of these tracks are reinterpretations of the tracks featured on my debut album Wildfire, but there are also some completely original tunes that I never released properly before.”

Wildfire is a lovely tune with a string-drenched start alongside old school US samples. It’s also a bit Eastern in the way the strings are deployed. This gives it a sense of being about and from everywhere. The beats are taken from all the way back to early techno days with that late 80s tinniness to them. But in this context it works perfectly. And then there’s the acid, snuck in as a kind of beefy bass line. Gives the track a depth it would otherwise lack. If only we could dance gain.

Bandcamp (name your price)

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