Did you ever want to be James Bond? I’m not sure I did, despite enjoying the films. He got beaten up too often and that looked too painful. Explains a lot about my career as a bureaucrat. Unknown Operative on the other hand clearly did and shares the more seductive side of the films with the sophisticated hip hop lounge of Undercover Love.
Unknown Operative discloses little about himself other than he’s from the UK and, “combines a love of vintage television, ambient electronics and beats into a unique brand of lofi hip hop/study beats.” Undercover Love is the first in a planned series of twelve monthly releases. Let’s hope he can keep the quality up over time.
Undercover Love is pitched as, “Music for James Bond to chill to.” And that’s pretty much spot on. Opens with a bit of guitar that has the slight twang of the famous opening Bond music. But adds some soft chords for that dimly lit late lounge seduction. And beats to keep things from getting too relaxed as there’s baddies to be fought, a mission still to complete, and world domination to be avoided.
We had Pomme Rouge here last summer. They’re back with more energetic leftfield techno house in the form of a remix from Etyen.
Last time it was Cosmic Crisp. This time it’s Honey Crisp. I’m still sticking with more traditional cheese and onion or ready salted. As a reminder, Pomme Rouge are a duo from Beirut, Lebanon. They’ve a new Cut In Half EP out now on Thawra Records, with two new tracks and two remixes. It’s the Etyen remix from Thawra label founder that I’m featuring.
Honey Crisp is halved in length in the remix being cut down to a manageable three and a half minutes. It starts with an almost 80s synth tumble before some awkward kinda IDM beats come in a rush. They have a glitched breakbeat style. Gives the track a permanently off-kilter and awkward style. But it’s also a lovely headrush of those older synths with their analogue styling and the more recent beats. This is the thrill of the backroom and the leftfield but still with an instinct to dance. Powerful stuff.
Here’s a track just right for the heart-pumping tension of going to the shopping centre community hall to vote today. It has all the high octane thrill of choices between Count Binface, Burning Pink or Brian Rose. Meanwhile, I postal voted a few days ago. But let that not stop us celebrating an uplifting techno track from Weska.
Originally from Toronto, Weska is now located in Berlin after working across Europe, including Ibiza. His sound is that of main room and big dance floors. There’s a totally confident use of dynamics here. Meru from his new EP of the same name is “named after one of the most treacherous mountains to climb in the Himalayas, a goal he’s pinned to the top of his bucket list.”
The track is brilliantly accessible techno but with a bit of welcome Berlin darkness. There are big beefy beats from the outset allied to a bass line that has just enough leftfield edge to give a little shiver. It’s modern but with enough of techno’s 90s heyday to be totally accessible to all. The track offers sections that lift and sections that offer temporary pauses. This is a track for hedonistic abandon and a side order of sleaze. Proper club techno.
One of the pleasures of this latter stage of doing a blog is the way that things and artists come round after a long gap. Few come round after a gap of eight years sounding quite as perky as Sono’s Helo does.
Sono is a 31 year old producer from Copenhagen, Denmark. He says, “I’ve played piano since I was a child, and produced music for 13 years now. I used to work at a recording studio as assistant co-producer, where I learned the trade. He first appeared on this blog in 2012 and hasn’t been here since 2013 when he was Chameo. He says, “It’s been a long journey, but now I’m focusing on just making good music, and I would love it, if someone else were to join in and hopefully get to share some of what I make with interested people.”
The featured track is Helo in both instrumental and vocal variants. Both available for free download. So, get ’em while you can. This is coming out of lockdown music. It’s good time deep house with a big disco kick.
The track is quick to get down to business with skittery drums itching to get on with things. A disco type bass comes in alongside almost EDM trance whooshing. But it’s all lifted up with some lovely stabbing keyboards that seeps a little sunshine into your soul. This is all main room bounce and good times. The second half of the track delves deeper into synth disco with synthetic strings for accompaniment. This is good for good people having good times. Have you been good enough?
Amtrac returns to these parts after a gap of two years with the delightful deep house of Unanswered.
As a reminder, Amtrac is Caleb Cornett, originally from Morehead, Kentucky now based in Los Angeles. He’s a new twin track Grit EP out in collaboration with The Juan MacLean (John MacLean). How this collaboration came about, who does what, is simply not disclosed. All we’re left with is a beautiful piece of electronica that casually avoids easy pigeonholing.
On Unanswered synths ripple with electronica. The mood is chilled deep house. It’s all relaxed and has a loose limbed funkiness with the bass offering special hip wriggling treatment. Beats are kept soft and pushed back in the mix giving it a chilled warm glow. Superb music for warm evenings and whittling. Especially whittling. On your porch.
Take a Detroit techno producer Cancel Council. Take one track, Hyperobject. Deliver a set of remixes. And there you have your 12th album. Here’s the final remix from the album by SIUN.
Cancel Council is H. Shaw who has been solo producing under several electronic music aliases and self releasing on his own label, Day Job Recordings, since the late 2000s. Cancel Council, started in 2008 and is his, “quasi experimental Detroit techno influenced conceptual take on techno and minimal house.” His 11th album was 34th Parallel North. On it was the track Hyperobject.
And now the track’s been subject to eight remixes. The original track is a minimal techno track with a bit of synthwave spaciness. The featured track is the last of the eight remixes. It’s by SIUN (Dariusz Dyrda) who is an electronic music producer from Poland, now based in China. He’s been around since the 90s and there’s an accomplished skill at work here.
His remix cuts the original five minutes down to four minutes. And in so doing tightens the track considerably. This gives the track loads more pace and direction. It ends a up lovely shimmery future house track with both underlying dubbed groove and a bit of a lively hook to get the synapses triggered. Makes you long for the return of clubs and soundsystems capable of doing this track justice.
A triple bill for this Ambient Sunday long weekend (here in the UK). Tracks from CaliCronk x Lo-Fi Luke, Padre Tóxico, and Private Agenda with a remix from Seahawks. Styles go from chill, through IDM, and out into drone.
Sweden’s Lo-Fi Luke returns to these parts in collaboration with US-based CaliCronk. The track is Divinity. This is chill hop at its best. Beats slowly thud around in a languid manner. Keyboards tinkle like the pitter patter of rain. Everything’s all soporific. I wouldn’t normally post a track that’s less than two minutes. But somehow these two have made it worth it. God is in the little things, I suppose.
Another returnee is Poland’s Padre Tóxico. His usual work is in the study beats space. But Reward System Revisited explores new IDM pastures. Taken from the album The Tripping Point, for which it is the last track, this is IDM ambient given a new transfusion. This is a three minute journey back to the early 90s and the backroom spaces where time and space didn’t matter. There’s a bit of Seefeel here, some comedown The Shamen there and even a bit of Mixmaster Morris magic. It’s has a dreamy slightly psychedelic edge to it all with that lovely IDM wheeziness. A total trip.
Finally, a newcomer in the shape of Private Agenda with a remix by Seahawks. This is ambient drone of a high quality.. Private Agenda is Sean Phillips and Martin Aggrowe, who describe themselves as, “based between London and Berlin.” Their work has an electronic pop quality but the remix has taken it to different places.
The track is Malanai Ascending. I think Malanai is Hawaiian for the gentle blowing of the northeast wind. And it also seems to mean serene. And that’s what you get here. The track is taken from the album Submersion. This is a collection of musical re-imaginations, what they call, “a series of deep dives” based upon tracks from Private Agenda’s first LP, Île de Rêve (2019).
Manalai Ascending is the final track on the album and mixes birdsong (like good ambient should) with a bass synth that reaches down into watery depths and back up again. There are plucked deep strings. But the whole thing is held together by some shimmering guitar reflecting sharp sunlight. There’s a bit of Fripp and Eno here. It’s a hazy psychedelic ambient wave-lapped journey. A vision of untouched tropical beach paradise.
The one in which electronic artist Aphex Twin’s non-electronic track gets turn into an electronic track by Gravity Proof.
The track is question is Avril 14th. It comes from Aphex Twin’s 2001 release Drukqs. Given Aphex Twin’s reputation for ferocious and confrontational music this stands out. It’s a two part piano piece and has romance at its core. It’s famously been sampled by Kanye West and used in films. In fact, the original was recorded using a Disklavier, a piano with an add-on that reads MIDI data and then plays the keyboard. A perfect Aphex Twin track in that it sounds human but isn’t. It’s been covered umpteen times over the years. And this cover by Gravity Proof stands up there with the best.
Gravity Proof is Canadian-born Alex Mitchell from Brooklyn. As for why he chose to do this cover, he says, “I wanted to do a synth based version that still captured the nostalgic / peaceful vibe of the original track.” It’s played on a Sequential OB-6. And in a nice twist on the original he says, “I do a lot music programing but challenged myself to actually learn to play this piece.” There’s proof in the form of a video below. The cover of Avril 14th is really lovely. It captures the romantic but melancholic heart of the original but puts the electronics more prominently into the equation. And the slight air of reverb gives it a more hazy lush quality. Delicious.
It’s the start of the long weekend here. I’m going to ease in with the deep hip hop jazz of ElectroDragon Beats.
ElectroDragon Beats is from Pune, India. You wouldn’t know it from the music. I guess this is study beats style. Yes, there’s some surface noise crackling. There’s a bit of a warped clarinet(?). But what makes this is the deep deep thud of the bass drum and a rich treacly atmosphere. It’s all dark black velvet and brushed charcoal. It’s black and white noir films. It’s the best of times it’s the worst of times. It’s rich in emotion and utterly captivating.
The rather wonderful Andrew Rothschild is back with another lovely track. Tree Echoes is a bit less downtempo and a bit more organic house than usual but is still delightful.
Andrew Rothschild is from Denver, Colorado and has appeared here a few times. Today we have Tree Echoes taken from Season Three an uptempo/Organic House compilation on Loci Records. The track is built around a jumped up acoustic guitar break, a wordless aahing and some organic house beats. It’s relaxed and yet has a sense of dynamic pace. It’s a gambol through the forest. It’s the patterns of dappled sunlight. Everything is light and airy and yet the bass drum gives the track a sense of grounded weight. For fauna and flora everywhere.
