Tag: ambient

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Skee Mask – MDP5

MDP5 is taken from a pair of EPs Skee Mask released this week that illustrate the two extremes of his music. The first, ISS005 is club-focussed – at times brutal – jungle and breakbeat, while the second ISS006 is entirely beatless, ambient atmospherics, and if you’ve been following this blog for any length of time at all it will be no surprise which of these I’ve gravitated towards.

Listening to any of these tracks in isolation doesn’t really do them justice: as with pretty much all of Skee Mask’s releases there’s a narrative thread that runs though ISS006 that really requires you to listen to it in its entirety to be properly appreciated. But MDP5 nicely illustrates what to expect, and is a marked shift in tone for an artist who, although often dealing in similarly deconstructed electronics, has never gone this stripped-back (or bleak) before.

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com

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Daniel Avery – Fuzzwar

Like many artists who have unexpectedly had their touring calendars erased by coronavirus, Daniel Avery has been keeping himself busy in the studio, and last week surprise released an entire album of new material, the 14 track Love + Light. “This record has been a real positive force of energy in my life, to the point where it almost formed itself in front of me,” Avery says of the LP. “In that same spirit, I wanted to share it with you now, as soon as it was finished.” Love + Light ranges from full on party techno bangers to hazy, washed out electronic ballads, with the wonderful Fuzzwar occupying a space very much towards the latter end of that spectrum.

https://www.danielavery.co.uk

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Mechatok – Agency Loop

The first minute or so of Agency Loop is nothing more than a gently undulating synth line set against the backdrop of some especially tuneful birdsong, and it’s entirely blissful. To be honest, I’m less into the final movement when the drums roll in and it all becomes a bit sub Boards Of Canada, but the tranquility of the that early section is really special. It’s taken from the official soundtrack of Defective Holiday, a trippy indie video game that’s available now on Steam.

https://soundcloud.com/mechatok

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TENGGER – Eurasia

Soothing ambient electronics from the New-Age drone duo TENGGER for you today, and I have to say this is the most relaxed I’ve felt listening to music for quite some time. TENGGER translates to ‘unlimited expanse of sky’ in Mongolian, which is incredibly appropriate for the sweeping harmonies and spacious atmospheres conjured by not only this record, but much of their catalogue. Eurasia is from their new album Nomad, which is out now on the brilliantly named Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records.

https://tengger.bandcamp.com/

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Gia Margaret – 3 movements

While touring her last album There’s Always A Glimmer, Gia Margaret lost her voice, forcing her to prematurely end the tour and spending several weeks at home to recuperate. Initially removing herself from from music entirely, she eventually started playing around with her synthesiser and piano, and had soon written and recorded an album’s worth of (almost wordless) ambient. Mia Gargaret came out last week and is thoroughly beautiful, and 3 movements is just one of many highlights.

https://giamargaret.net

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alva noto – Xerrox Canaux

I’ve previously featured a Ben Frost remix of alva noto’s Uni Normal, which was fairly brutal, punishing techno. This is at the other end of the electronic spectrum entirely, and is about as fragile and tranquil as music gets, with poignant strings, gently pulsing bass and very little else.

http://alvanoto.com

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Night Sea – Manila

Flawless ambient dub techno taken from Night Sea’s LP Still, which is in their words “the culmination of a two-year journey playing with the relationship between sound, repetition, and impermanence.” Couldn’t have put it better myself, so I’m not going to try. It’s out now on Silent Season, which is probably my favourite label for this kind of stuff, and if you like Manila I would highly recommend checking out their Campfire Stories series of mixes, as well as the rest of their catalogue.

https://shop.silentseason.com/album/still

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Andrea – LG_Amb

LG_Amb is taken from Italian producer Andea’s debut album for Ilian Tape which explores various different electronic styles, from ambient and dubby techno to more visceral jungle/breakbeat cuts. LG_Amb sits somewhere in the middle of these: what starts as dreamy, shimmering ambient is quickly joined by clattering broken beats and eventually rich, warm pads. It’s really lovely: so lovely in fact that I do wish there had been a few tracks of a similar vibe on the album. There are a few that sound a little overproduced and clinical as a result, whereas this melts out of the speakers, fully formed and organic.

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/album/itlp06-andrea-ritorno

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Klara Lewis – Ingrid

Ingrid starts off with nothing more than a solo, softly reverbed cello, which wanders round a little before locking into a single repeated refrain. Over the course of the next 20 minutes it’s slowly joined by various electronic textures, gradually dissolving into a cacophony of static before Lewis strips everything away again until only the stark, fragile strings remain. It’s stunning, and Lewis’s ability to wring this amount of tension and emotion from a single, simple loop is really quite breathtaking.

https://klaralewis.com

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Rafael Anton Irisarri – Fright and Control

Brooding ambient drone from one of the very best in the business. Like a lot of Rafael Anton Irisarri’s work, this is pretty bleak, but compellingly – and often overwhelmingly – so, with enough tiny rays of sunlight breaking through the clouds to keep you coming back for more. This is on his new album Peripeteia which came out this week on Dais Records, and includes a continuous mix of all the album tracks if you really want to burrow into the gloom.

https://www.irisarri.org