Tag: ambient

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Daniel Avery – Spider

Daniel Avery has assembled an impressive raft of caollborators on his new album Ultra Truth, with production from Ghost Culture and Manni Dee, vocals courtesy of HAAi, Jonnine Standish (HTRK), AK Paul and the “voices” (not sure why that’s different from ‘vocals’, but apparently it is) of Marie Davidson, Kelly Lee Owens, Sherelle and James Massiah. It’s a more contemplative record that he’s produced before – way more afterparty mong than peak time rave up – and is probably the release of his I’ve enjoyed the most, which tells you everything you need to know about my current levels of rave-readiness. Spider is 90s-evoking ambient techno with all the OTT heartfeltness that entails, and I love it.

https://danielavery.bandcamp.com/album/ultra-truth

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Xena Glas – To the A

Brooklyn-based visual artist, poet and musician Xena Glas released her new Movement EP last week, including To the A: a restrained and beautiful slice of electronica heavy on choral vocals and atmosphere. Xena employs content from a single field recording of her walking from her Crown Heights apartment to the A train, and then off the train to the Hudson River in Manhattan, which adds a flavour of the mundane in this otherwise ethereal track.

https://xenaglas.bandcamp.com/album/movement-ep

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Joy Helder – Life of the Party

Joy Helder’s fantastic recent EP Blurt flits between creeping ambient and more energetic electronica, with Life of the Party sitting slap bang in the middle. Skeletal in the sparseness of its structure, every echoing glitch or crispy delivered hi-hat has been painstakingly crafted to deliver maximum impact, burrowing deep into your brainholes and sending satisfying shivers down your spine.

https://joyhelder.bandcamp.com/album/blurt

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Loraine James – Black Excellence (Stay On It)

Loraine James’s new album Building Something Beautiful For Me lands today and fucking hell it is amazing. I never really clicked with last year’s Reflection, but loved her ambient album as Whatever The Weather from earlier this year. Building… seems to sit somewhere between these ambient and club spaces and comes across almost like a work in progress, with tracks stopping abruptly or changing tone midway through. There are so many highlights picking a single track was very tough, but I went for Black Excellent (Stay On It) due to the simplicity of its construction – pretty much just a single, undulating synthline throughout – resolved perfectly by the bleak beauty of its final third.

https://clark.bandcamp.com/album/05-10

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Clark – Autumn Linn

Celestial ambient wanderings from Clark that should appeal to anyone who enjoyed last year’s Playground In A Lake. Taken from a compilation of new tracks, unreleased archive material and rarities, collected by the artist to release alongside the remastered reissue of his 2006 LP Body Riddle.

https://clark.bandcamp.com/album/05-10

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Rex Kalibur – Benign Abyss

Get lost in the digital waves…

https://soundcloud.com/rex-kalibur

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Quiraing – SU1-269MU 

Incredibly chill and glassy ambient from Quiraing, written on an island in Northern Michigan and created mainly from field recordings made on the artist’s journey to reach it. Simple and very effective.

https://soundcloud.com/quiraingmusic

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Precipitation – Sundown in Orgi

“Don’t judge a book by its cover” etc, but in my experience definitely do judge an album by its cover. Or at least give it a listen. There is literally nothing about the cover of Precipitation’s new album Glass Horizon (or the artist name, or the title for that matter) that suggests I won’t completely love it. And I do! Kinda house, kinda ambient, 100% lush. Sundown in Orgi comes in like Laurent Garnier’s Last Tribute to the 21st Century – all sad pads and longing – before skipping happily off on lo-fi broken beats over a squidgy bassline. Aaaaand… melt.

https://100percentsilk.bandcamp.com

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Factor Eight – A Voice (II)

Composed entirely using his voice, Canadian-based artist Andrew Bennett aka Factor Eight explores mental health and creates a platform to relay his experience with bipolar disorder, with all proceeds being donated to Canadian Mental Health Association Saskatoon. “I hope that through this project, my music might help to inspire a feeling of connection in those who struggle, and sense of compassion in those who struggle to relate.”

https://soundcloud.com/factoreight

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Steve Fors – (good enough) for now

There are very few things I enjoy more than discovering an artist I love for the first time; a feeling that is undoubtedly heightened when said artist is also relatively unknown. It’s pretty much the entire reason for this blog: claiming a minute fragment of credit for highlighting incredible music that would otherwise remain unappreciated. Appreciate me, please! Sickening really, but I can’t help who I am. Anyway, If – like me – you hadn’t previously heard of Steve Fors, his new album it’s nothing, but still is some of the best, wistful ambient I’ve heard this year. And I’ve listened to a lot!

https://hallowground.bandcamp.com/album/steve-fors-its-nothing-but-still