Ambient Sunday triple bill with: Infralyd, Skymning, and Nicolás Aimo
•September 29, 2024 • Leave a Comment
A surfeit of pleasure for your Sunday as we have a triple bill today from Infralyd, Skmning, and Nicolás Aimo.
Infralyd is a Danish composer and producer. His work is electronic but with a neo classical tinge that offers grace and space rather than swelling emotions or bombast. He appeared here a year ago and is back with new track Re:visit.
Re:visit is an ethereal track full of quiet introspection. It has quite a lot in common with the Ólafur Arnalds strand of Scandie neo classicism but without the neeed to drench everything in strings.
This is a beautiful electronic piece of calming tones that never quite drift into drone. There’s a gentle musicality and a gentle toying with your emotions especially in the almost symphonic lift which comes in the final third of the track.
A welcome addition to any ambient playlist.
If Infralyd was calming, Skymning is more anxiety inducing. Skymning is Erik Lagerholm from Sweden. He has a background in more commercial work. But his biog says “a longing for experimentation and personal expression led him to the atmospheric and melancholic music.”
Here’s Varselsken from his new album of the same name. It’s a bit ethereal but mostly has that crackly edgy quality that Biosphere sometimes brings. The sounds of the ice cracking under your feet and a sense of nascent danger.
Skymning says of the track that “A frozen forest in the pale winter morning light. A serene and soft hymn comes through the trees and settles with a low, driving and almost industrial rhythm.”
It’s that air of crisp frozen ice and snow that opens the track. There’s a warmth from the ethereal vocal but it can’t completely mitigate the edginess. Beats come as a bass ridden throb and kick. There’s a little IDM hissiness that adds to the atmosphere.
Ultimately, there’s a wonderfully composed sense to this track even if it’s not easy listening.
Finally moving away from Scandinavia, we go to Argentina for Nicolás Aimo. He was born in Chubut, Argentina, (in the Patagonia region) and started his musical career as a bassist and played in bands for more than ten years. He’s since gone solo and focused on electronic music.
Here’s T5 from the Dikarya album made with Buenos Aires, Argentina based Cristián García Laborde aka Koiwa. For those like me without great knowledge of fungi Wiki says “Dikarya is a subkingdom of Fungi that includes the divisions Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, both of which in general produce dikaryons, may be filamentous or unicellular, but are always without flagella.” The album is an attempt to find meaning from nature in the absence of religion.
Musically, T5 is one of those seemingly endless beatless tracks with a past that echoes some of the Fax output of the 90s. It’s slightly experimental in that it’s a succession of sounds and moods rather than a tune or melody as such.
This is that terrible word “soundscape”. And yet that’s what applies best here. Sounds come, rise up and fall back again. It’s the ever changing growing networks of nature. There’s a gently hissing harmony among the burbling sounds.
It’s a bit new age but in a good way. There’s resonance and reverberations here. An attempt to put you into a kind of mental trance. This is a beautiful experimentation to suspend the here and now and offer solace in space and nothingness.
Analyse this downtempo chill from: Freud – Butters
•September 28, 2024 • Leave a Comment
General Grievous is here to insist you listen to this super downtempo from Freud.
I’m assuming Freud isn’t related to THE Freud but that’s an unconscious assumption. Turns out Freud is Fred Canelas, an Amsterdam-based and Portuguese-born producer who has been releasing under this name since 2017.
Here’s Butters from the Resilience compilation. This is a chill track that is ultra laid back. Dubby keyboards open with some wood percussion and some spaced effects. It’s all very woozy and a little psychedelic.
There’s a welcome smoothness to the track as it crawls along. Horns add some drama and pathos and even a little guitar for variety. But it’s the dubby centre of this track allied to the horns that gives the track its standout quality.
If you want a Saturday night lie down, this is for you.
Tech Techno from: ProOne79 – Tilt
•September 27, 2024 • Leave a Comment
Friday nights alright for dancing. Here’s ProOne79 with a techno / tech house crossover on Tilt.
ProOne79 is Italian based producer Gioele Cantoni. He’s from Sardinia and has been a producer since the 90s. His work focuses on house and techno. He’s been here a few times before. Last time was a remix, this time his own track.
Tilt is taken from his Rage EP. It’s a big splatter of a track with more than a little throwback action for good measure.
The beats that open the track have that 80s elasticity and dulled edges so beloved of tech house and NY techno. This gives the track a real opening intent.
The synths when they arrive are coloured by acid squelchy edges. There’s an early 90s jitter at work here. Almost electro in places if it weren’t for the pervasive acid.
There’s a confidence here that allows the track to be dialled back periodically just so it can peak again. Those ratatat drums provide that bitd experience. This is the new old school.
This is a big big track for losing it big time. Break out the strobes.
Downtempo techno with: TECHNO STEVE – Blood Draw
•September 26, 2024 • Leave a Comment
A tricky track today. Hard to categorise. I’ve ended up calling it downtempo techno since it growls like acid techno but with a slower bpm. The track is provided by TECHNO STEVE.
TECHNO STEVE is Ian Goldthwaite, from the Midwest US who has formerly released material as a part of Mungbean, and additional music under his own name.
The track is Blood Draw. It’s a dark and viscous beast. It comes with the tag “Skin pierced silent Raging warm liquid closed in a vial Desperate lava flow heading for the freezer.” TECHNO STEVE is afraid of needles.
The track starts with a heart beat throb of bass beats alongside a rippling synth panorama. Doesn’t take long for things to get darker and a bit paranoid. There’s a properly unsettled and uncomfortable feeling to this track.
The bass growling continues but things almost settle into an almost downtempo air. But there’s a latent fuzziness that gradually comes to the fore lest you forget the darkness and the fear. Synths ping around until there’s a fade. But it’s a false ending with a beat based rumble to fade.
Sadly for Steve he’s going to have to undergo more things he is afraid of if that’s what it takes to produce more cool music.
Back to Africa with: Young Simba The DJ – Kuvukiland – 2024 Remastered Version
•September 24, 2024 • Leave a Comment
Today we have the sound of young Africa in the form of Young Simba The DJ. It’s a sort of experimental house tune called Kuvukiland – 2024 Remastered Version.
Young Simba The DJ is Kamohelo Ngakane who is 24 years old and was raised at Phiri, Soweto (Johannesburg). He started releasing music last year and is early in his career. He says “”Dreams delayed are not dreams denied”. One day he’ll get a recognition and his dream will come true, as it has began.” And perhaps he will.
Kuvukiland – 2024 Remastered Version is taken from his Catalogue Revamped album released last month. He describes it as old school house which sells it a bit short. It’s much stranger and more original than that label implies. I think the Kuvukiland of the title is a reference to a fast growing informal housing settlement close to Tsumeb in Namibia. But I may equally be wrong.
As a track is starts with those jittery African drums and bongos. There’s a minimalist aesthetic at work here and a confidence in the space between the notes.
It’s accompanied by a low one note synth line and an organic sounding almost flute parping. An electronic wind blows. There’s a slightly melancholic or reflective air to the track.
This is an electronic music that has only a glancing reference to the usual 4/4 mechanics. This is an artist ploughing his own furrow. Long may that approach last.
Melodic Techno Monday with: Daniella Bjarnhof – Never Seen
•September 23, 2024 • Leave a Comment
Something bouncy to start the week. A big slice of melodic techno from the returning Daniella Bjarnhof.
Daniella Bjarnhof is a Danish DJ from Copenhagen known for her melodic progressive house sound. She appeared here just over a year ago. Then I said, “Her style is more wave your hands in the air than I’d usually go for. But there’s an artless joy that transcends my usual curmudgeonly stance.”
Turns out nothing’s changed. I’m still a curmudgeon and I’m still a sucker for her artless stance. This time on her new track Never Seen.
Never Seen is a melodic techno track with a streak of prog house shot through its centre. It has that repressed wave your hands in the air feel from the first notes. And when the keyboards arrive with a bit of ethereal vocals at the first break everything falls into place.
This is pumping big room melodic techno but it doesn’t hit the peaks lightly and in its extended version allows the track to have a little pause and drift before ratcheting everything back up.
This DJ puts a smile on your face and your head in the clouds.
Ambient Sunday does pop with: KS – Then
•September 22, 2024 • Leave a Comment
Ambient Sunday is having a pop moment with KS. But it’s also grumpy. I’m tired and cranky. Too many obligations and not enough time. A soothing moment is called for from KS.
KS is Jose Zambrano Cassella, a Musician and Filmmaker originally from Venezuela, now based in Los Angeles. His biog says “His discography boasts five albums, each a cocktail of electronica, funk, rock, and pop, topped with a cheeky bag of chips.” 🙄
Luckily, featured track Then from his new Extended Play EP puts everything right. The opening is a bit of guitar with a gentle keyboard melody. It has a childlike approach that charms.
Beats arrive but it carries on in its unhurried way. There’s a slight poppiness and a bit of goofy wonkiness to the track. This lets it stand out from the crowd and the simple melody to shine.
It even manages to have a bit of that multi-tracked vocal aahing without it being utterly twee or annoying. How does he manage that? I’ve no idea but I’m ever so grateful that he does.
“Writing about music is like dancing about architecture” Is a quote I think about often. This is one of those times. I don’t quite know why this is great. But it is. Give it a listen.
Saturday night Detroit techno with: ARPRAXIS – Car and Driver Heat Award
•September 21, 2024 • Leave a Comment
You deserve some techno. What better night than Saturday? And what better techno than a bit of classic Detroit? Here’s ARPRAXIS with Car and Driver Heat Award.
ARPRAXIS is a Vinyl DJ, artist and producer of multi-genre sounds. He’s been around for over 30 years and is highly influenced from producers of early Detroit and Belgian techno as well as U.K. breakbeat. ARPRAXIS is showing off a mix of minimal and Detroit here.
No idea what lies behind the title. As usual with techno that doesn’t really matter. What you need to know if that this is a classic Detroit techno sound but done with enough verve and commitment to deliver something that sounds nice and fresh.
The track has a restrained minimal palette as its basic template but also takes a step up in the synth melodies and the kick of the beats. It’s a winning combination.
There’s a warm familiarity to the sounds with that early 90s Carl Craig type feel. But it is self confident enough to forge its own path. Saturday night winner.
Sweet downtempo electronic warmth with: Oakfield – Walking On Air
•September 20, 2024 • Leave a CommentHow’s your week been? Busy? If so, I have a perfect piece of chillaxation. Here’s Oakfield with Walking On Air. Don’t worry there’s no Aled Jones here.
There is however a Welsh connection as Oakfield is Paul Rogers from Wales. Cloudwalking is his debut EP and very confident it is too. There’s an assurance about the whole thing that makes it sound like this is the latest in a long line of releases.
Walking On Air is a gloriously chilled track. But one that comes with a soft swagger. It’s happy to weave a variety of influences together. There’s a bit of classic downtempo here and a chilled IDM there. And it reminded me of the lovely indie synth pop of Frazier Chorus in its lightness of touch.
It has a slightly synth pop opening with keyboards offering a start before some piano chords accompany. Beats arrive but with a ping and a lofi beats tempered by some richer sounds.
But most of all it delivers the sort of hummable hooks that you really want and a delicious head nodding vibe. There’s a tickle of organ hook, a run and ripple of keyboards there. Synthetic strings buzz softly. Puts a grin on your face.
This is proper lush. Cerddoriaeth Gymreig iawn.
ACID TED 