The Predatory Wasp
K-Lone’s new LP sorry i thought you were someone else – his debut release on Incienso – was produced after his father’s passing and became a place for the Brighton-based artist to escape and reflect. And while the majority of the album isn’t necessarily something I’ll be going back to, the opening track someone else is inarguably lovely.
https://k-lone.bandcamp.com/album/sorry-i-thought-you-were-someone-else
Viktoras Urbaitis aka Teatre crafts electronic music of cinematic quality, evoking images of desolate night streets and the dark, flowing waters of Eastern European rivers. His new Overtime EP is the debut release for Berlin’s Dangė Records – which specialises in championing electronic music from Lithuania and the Baltics – and is a testament to the hours spent in the fluorescent-lit purgatory of office spaces, navigating corporate networks and the sterile interactions of online support, all while under the literary spell of Jurga Ivanauskaite’s diaries.
XENIA REAPER lands on Berlin’s Oscilla Sound with seven deft cuts, gently fusing the outer realms of spectral ambience and delicate breaks.
I really like it when artists I haven’t thought about for years pop back up with something brilliant. I was mildly obsessed with Moomin in The Story Of You era, which terrifyingly was 15 years ago. Lots has changed for me in that time, but it’s reassuring to know he’s been making pretty much the same music; namely dusty, lofi house with plaintive piano lines and samples of waves gently rolling onto the shore. Joni is actually a bit of a outlier as he ventures into more expansive breaks, but that lead synth line really is pretty special.
Swedish producer Martinou is the latest addition to my very short list of electronic artists making properly emotional stuff; melancholy, reflective, heartbreaking. Basically the kind of stuff I want to be able to make myself. This is taken from his excellent new EP The Glow That Lingers for Fauxpax Musik, and if you like what you hear I’d recommend going back to his 2021 album Rift for more of the same.
https://fauxpasmusik.bandcamp.com/album/the-glow-that-lingers
I wish that people would stop releasing really great albums this late in the year, as it’s making compiling my top 50 list an increasingly tough. The latest guilty party is Djrum, whose new LP Meaning’s Edge – his first full length since 2018 is amazing, with the eight minute Crawl coming in like a cross between Aphex Twin and Shed, but with a deftness of touch that makes the frenetic rhythms glide silkily by.
Skee Mask just released the latest album in a series that pulls together batches of previously unreleased tracks, these made between 2016 and 2022. As with its predecessors, D is more coherent and accomplished than 99% of electronic albums released this year; an impressive feat given that this is essentially a sweep of the cutting room floor.
I’ve spent an awful lot of time searching for “artists that sound like DJ Healer”, and the only one that’s really come close in term of delivering the hazy feels I need is Croatian Amor, especially his more recent work, which seems to be leaning ever further into dreamy breaks and nostalgia-heavy meanderings. These two tracks close his latest album A Part of You in Everything – a companion piece to last year’s Remember Rainbow Bridge, and dedicated to the memory of his younger brother who died at birth. Despite the overwhelming sad genesis of the 8-track collection, the overall effect is more reflective than desolate; a hopeful catharsis beautifully expressed.
https://croatianamor-poshisolation.bandcamp.com/album/a-part-of-you-in-everything
Last week we had the creator of one of the all-time great remixes, and today we have the man he remixed, proving that they are completely incapable of doing anything too far away from one another. Taken from his new album Crystal Vision, Bibled is glorious, soaring, soft-focus breaks that Mixmag would doubtless describe as “tailor-made for the afters”.
Andrea’s last album Ritorno was one of my favourite releases of 2020, so it’s great to see him back on Ilian Tape for the follow up, Due In Color. Atmospheric breaks one again dominate, with perhaps just a little more ambient whimsey present than last time around. Lush In End (Drum Version) is one of the more energetic tracks, and it’s absolutely brilliant.
The Predatory Wasp 