Tag: electronic

Categories
Music

Loscil – Lumina

Loscil has been making consistently brilliant, deeply atmospheric electronic music for two decades now, and over the course of 15 or so albums has established himself as a producer with a clear and precise vision. Lumina is taken from his latest album, Clara, which came out last week, and is a perfect example of his patient, haunting approach to production, with reassuringly warm, sweeping pads accompanied by a winding, bubbling synth line that both soothes and invigorates.

https://loscil.bandcamp.com/album/clara

Categories
Music

Eager Atom – Ambient I

Eager Atom is the latest musical project from Dutch producer and composer Gydo Keijzer, and Ambient I is taken from his new album Extrastatecraft. It’s a powerfully cinematic slice of ambient that could just as easily soundtrack the most unsettlingly poignant moments of a lo-fi Adam Curtis’s documentary as it could the final, cathartic , “tears in the rain” scene of a multi-million dollar sci-fi epic. Both of which are compliments, just in case I lost you at “ambient”.

https://soundcloud.com/eageratom

Categories
Music

Cody Uhler – Fairy Tech

My obsession with video-game inspired/evoking music continues unabated, and Cody Uhler’s debut single Fair Tech is the latest in a long line of tracks to scratch that particular itch. This is taken from his forthcoming LP Darbo’s Island, which Uhler bills as “the greatest video game that never existed”, and like the very best video games, it’s fun, slightly puzzling and relentlessly addictive.

https://codyuhler.bandcamp.com/album/darbos-island

Categories
Music

KMRU – 11

Kenyan artist KMRU follows up the two fantastic albums he released last year with another cut from the same exquisite cloth. Logue came out last week and is another gorgeous, delicate electronic album that explores ambient experimentalism, almost approaching beatless techno with some of its tracks. 11 is meditatively percussive, with spine-tingling synths and rich warm pads creating an intensely cosmic – but also firmly grounded – atmosphere, like a caveman staring longingly at the stars in search of the divine.

https://kmru.bandcamp.com

Categories
Music

Skee Mask – LFO

Honestly, Skee Mask is just outrageously good. I’m only three tracks into his latest album Pool which kinda came out of nowhere last week, and I’m already convinced it will be in my top 10 of the year. Very few other producers can touch him in terms of rhythm, creativity and his ability to create unique, engaging and highly emotional musical landscapes. LFO is one of his gentler efforts, beatless and almost devoid of percussion, with the ebb and flow of synth lines driving it forward.

https://iliantape.bandcamp.com/album/itlp09-skee-mask-pool

Categories
Music

Acetantina – Blindside

Shout out to Album of the Year for being a consistently reliable source of excellent music releases very few other sites seem to cover, the latest example of which being Libyan-German producer Kaizo Ziad’s electronic project Acetantina, and his new album Carmen Winstead. From start to finish it’s a fairly unsettling experience, with tracks emerging out of a static-y haze or being abruptly cut off mid flow, but it’s also consistency fascinating with some moments of truly exceptional sound design, the closing glassy synths of Blindside not least among them.

https://kaizoslumber.xyz/album/carmen-winstead-2

Categories
Music

Burial – Space Cadet

Like a lot of people, my entry point into Burial was 2007’s Untrue, which means I completely missed his remix of Blackdown’s Crackle Blues. According to Boomkat – who tend to be a pretty good authority on this kind of thing – that was a mistake, as it remains one of his tightest productions to date. Now, 15 years later, Burial and Blackdown reunite on Shock Power of Love EP which landed today on Keysound pretty much out of nowhere, which seems to be Burial’s current MO.

Space Cadet includes many of the later-era Burial staples – extended running time, triumphant, almost trancy chords – as well as plenty that have been with him his entire career (hello plaintive vocals and atmospheric crackles), but pushes the euphoric envelope further than perhaps ever before, with the warped call of “take me higher” echoed by a full on gospel choir. I guess we’ve come to expect this kind of relentless brilliance from Burial by now, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable.

https://burial.bandcamp.com

Categories
Music

96 Back – 9696 Dream

Recording under his 96 Back alias, 9696 Dream is the excellent new album from Manchester producer Evan Majumdar-Swift; a body of work that can handily be summed up in all its fun-loving, electro-leaning glory by its title track. Some of the sound design here reminds me a little of Holly Herndon, but without any of the oppressive intensity her music often explores. Instead we get warm, open chords, stripped-back rhythms and an almost uncontrollable desire to listen this at a volume that would doubtless upset my neighbours.

https://soundcloud.com/96-back

Categories
Music

Kero Kero Bonito – The Princess and the Clock

Bit late on this one as it came out about a month ago, but… it’s so fun! The British indie pop band’s latest starts life in a vaguely Aphex-ish way – all squidgy bass and sharp breakbeats – before morphing into a hyper-pop bubblegum banger like it was suddenly hit with a massive dose of steroids, but the kind that mean you’re still smiling and having a nice time, rather than sweaty and twitchy paranoid mess. Taken from their album (although it’s only three tracks, so, maybe EP?) Civilisation II, which is out now.

https://www.kerokerobonito.com

Categories
Music

PCM – Macro

I only really started paying proper attention to ambient a few years ago, and increasingly I feel like I’ve missed out and will never properly catch up, especially when there seems to be a near constant stream of incredible new stuff being released. Case in point: PCM’s Macro, the lead single from their forthcoming album. It’s absolutely incredible: a masterclass in restraint, raw emotion and surging power stretched out over 9 epic minutes.

https://soundcloud.com/user-511390168