Time for some acid that takes a classic house twist with Dan1mal.
Dan1mal is Daniel Eschenburg who says he “produces a hard-edged mix of multi-genre influenced rhythms that walk the line between edm, hip hop and pop.” Not sure there’s much of that here. On Back To The Acid we get some acid (duh) but also some classic piano house sounds. Not a combination I’d normally think of but the blend is delivered perfectly.
Back To The Acid starts with a sleazy dark bass line. Which is kind of how you’d want ti to start. Then some hi hats and a greater insistence and pace. The build keeps on building. But then a solid piano house line gets dropped in for that kick of something special. The contrast between the buzzing bass and piano is handled perfectly. The piano is used relatively sparingly which gives that extra kick every time it arrives. A proper club track but so cleverly knitted together that it also works as powerful home listening. Class.
A new snow storm has come to England and it’s Baltic out there. Something equally chilly is Out In The Zone by Alien Mammalian. A frozen techno track.
Retuning after two years Alien Mammalian hasn’t lost that sense of acid electro techno in the meantime. Taken from the Out In The Zone LP, this track is eleven minutes of sparse techno. It has an old school feel without ever becoming lost on the past. It’s a dense, chunky electro techno track with lots of acid to melt your ears. This might claim mammalian origins but there’s nothing organic here. It’s all machine made and machine music. No compromise. And that’s how it should be.
A triple bill of tracks for your Sunday morning with Nicolas Kluzek x bencon, Roberto Pedoto, and American Pika. A few more beats than is usual for a Sunday but still the mood is relaxed. Pour yourself a coffee and settle down.
Nicolas Kluzek x bencon is a collaboration between Paris-born and raised Nicolas Kluzek and Germany’s bencon. The track is Sonnenallee. It’s a trumpet driven track with an oh-so-slow mood. Nothing worth hurrying for vibe. The trumpet lead gives it a classic late 90s chill sensation. Beats crunch around listlessly. Keyboards tinkle whenever they feel like it. A little ethereal background vocal to send it effortlessly stratospheric. It’s an alarmingly lovely track.
And so to Italy’s Roberto Pedoto. He’s got a deep house background and this comes through on this chilled trip hop track. The way the keyboards are used on This Trippy Life have that deep house lushness. The beats are firm enough to stop the track slipping too far into the background. And the trippiness is provided by a lost trumpet awkwardly wandering around the track as keyboard chords try to lull you back to sleep. This is chill as psychedelia. Lovely clever stuff.
As the snow starts to come down let’s drift off with American Pika. I have to admit I thought this was some sort of gamer reference. I was wrong. “American Pika is a small member of the rabbit family that lives in the high mountains of North America. It is also a producer, composer, and mountaineer from Colorado.” The track is US-6 – a reference to a highway near his home town.
US-6 is a mix of strong beats alongside a drifting classical piano sound. And leavened out with all manner of strange electronics. The beats give the track momentum while the electronics have a slack-jawed stop-and-stare quality. It’s an almost unsettling mix of styles saved by the sheer pleasure of the contrast between electronic strangeness and romantic piano.
Going for a quiet and gentle weekend. So, it’s a pleasure to welcome back the UK’s Shaun DJ after a long gap with his new track Knew. This is all about the pain of loss and the long recovery.
The track is built upon a guitar rising and falling and around which everything else revolves. There’s beats… eventually. There’s synthetic strings that offer more of an ebb and flow of emotion. There’s a sense of pain and relief. It’s thus not a surprise that Shaun DJ says it’s “A song about everything working out.” The moment when the beats fall away again is one of aching isolation. Despite everything working out that doesn’t eliminate the sadness that’s at the heart of this delicate and beautiful track.
Hey! It’s Friday people. Let’s kick back with some chill and a story from Hayden Moeller and youji.
Hayden Moeller is from the USA and describes himself somewhat self=effacingly as “an awkward high schooler with a keen (and possibly unhealthy) interest in music production.” He reached out to youji, initially as a fan and then collaborator. He explains the process as, “I don’t remember how, but I ran across the music produced by Sebastien Poulin, otherwise known as youji. I considered it to be some of the best non-mainstream lofi I’ve ever heard. And, really in the process of ten minutes (or however long it took me to listen to all the stuff he’s released over the past few months), he became one of my favorite low fidelity producers, like, ever. And so I remember reaching out to him (I think through SubmitHub Hot or Not uploads) a few days later just to tell him what a great artist I thought he was. We exchanged socials, talked, etc etc etc, and by Christmas Break, we were already talking about collaborating and producing a song together.”
And so we have the fruits of their collaboration, Jet Jag. It’s a delicate beauty. A little gentle plucked guitar comes over, a bit of found sound and joined shyly by some soft shuffly beats. Then a stronger rippling line and some beautiful bass drum. But the whole mood is fragile and spacious. This is an exceptional chill track. The track goes off in a little whoosh. Less a jet plane and more the flutter of a child’s kite in the breeze. Blues skies and far off cirrus is all we need to come back to earth. Fly away somewhere better with Hayden and youji. Thank you both for the ride.
Let’s get in the pre-Friday mood with some broken beats and Wayward.
Wayward are a London, UK duo Louis Greenwood and Lawrence Hayes. For ones so young they are most eloquent. Their work is a mix of styles and their collaborations have a similar eclectic feel, ranging from Skrillex to Park Hye Jin and Chelou.
Ridge Road is a mix of uplifting piano, breakbeat or broken beat drums and spacey synths. The beats have that contemporary jittery hi-hats and high end beats. It’s all urban paranoia and groups of kids at bus stops. But then the piano synths comes along to pour a soothing balm over the whole thing. A few subs and a bit of acid pervades. And then then the whole thing makes a coherent sense. A late night concrete symphony.
Help yourself get over hump day with this lovely piece of deep house from Terresan.
Terresan is a German-American artist who spends his time between Berlin and New York. Le Poème Sonore is a track from his new Arrival EP. It wears its heart on its sleeve with its unashamedly emotional approach to things. The beats are light and bounce away happily. But the synths are in tones with a dreamy wistful bent. Hardly surprising then that the title translates as something like the listening poem. There are a succession of moods as musical phrases. The early almost downbeat tones are succeeded by something more cheering and optimistic. Such a wonderfully playful approach to your emotions. Enjoy.
And so back to another week. If, like me, you’re in need to a pick-me-up then may I suggest Perilous by Veillance?
Veillance is a sound engineer and producer from Seattle, WA. He’s into modular synthesizers and vintage analog synths. And that kinda comes through here.
Perilous is a misnomer. There’s nothing terribly dangerous here. The track is more like an excitable puppy, forever bouncing up and down and used to people saying how cute it is. The bounce comes from the breakbeat type beats that provide the underpinning for the track. There’s an eternal bounce to them that’s just lovely. And laid on top are a set of synths and some wordless vocal element that provide both interest and a slightly dreamy air. It manages to be propulsive and downtempo all at the same time. This track is lots of daydreaming fun.
Good morning. And it will be when you’ve sampled the delights of Ziino and Nick Schofield.
Ziino is hardly a stranger round these parts. He’s from Dublin, Ireland but currently living in Sweden.. His new offering is 1AM Walk. It’s described as nostalgic dance, which I guess is because it has a rather warm analogue feel. There’s lots of soft pads and nod to Bicep. This is ambient house which doesn’t forget the house origins. Gentle but still with prominent beats. But it still follows its own path. The promise of being something and somewhere better lurks beneath and gives it more of a 6am sunrise walk feel than the quiet darkness of 1am. Delicious.
Nick Schofield is from Montreal, Canada. And I guess he’s more a composer than anything else. His work has more than a little nod to classical forms but thankfully manages to sidestep the neo-classical tag. The track is Ambient Architect for which I’ve included a video as well as the usual listening links. That’s because as Nick explains, “When visiting the National Gallery of Canada, I often interpret painterly gestures, shapes and forms as ways to approach composition. Ambient Architect in particular is lifting from a Paul Klee painting, which features an of combination of this abstract architectural form overlaid on a cloud of soft colours.”
The track is a really beautiful and delicate ambient reverie. It’s a beatless piece that offers held tones and rippling, shifting synth forms on top. It’s a slow stately wander of wonder. It’s one of those tracks in which the only option available is to lose yourself within. It delights at itself and the world as the mood is all ascending phrases and slow strings. Utterly beguiling.
Finally it’s the weekend. Been too long coming. Going to celebrate with a track that demands a bit more than usual active listening from Datashell.
Datashell is Jeremy Zahrte from Los Angeles, California. His work is usually a bit experimental electronic. And that’s the case here. Stretched Thin is taken from the A Crack Between Worlds album. It’s at one level a harmonious chiming set of keyboards and synths. But behind there’s awkward beats and those almost insectoid noises that you get in IDM. It gives the track a taut neo-ambient feel with a wonderful touch of paranoia that’s perfect for the state we’re in.
