Art: Matik.
Tom Lokhem - Alone
Art: Imagine Visual Lab
Combining porous ambience and droning melodies, Colombia native Tom Lohkem casts a soothsayer’s spell on his single, “Alone”. The track is textured and succinct, with each sound given ample room to breathe within their respective layers. Placing the focus on lead melodies and percussive innards emphasizes the dynamic range accomplished through Lokhem’s clever production and engineering. Floating within a sensual vibe, “Alone” touches on the emotive synapses through potent, orchestral composition.
5AM Trio - Triovision
Art: 5AM
Hurling through stereo space and time, the 5AM project has fused a myriad of collaborative forces into a space-aged ensemble. He has brought to full fruition a vision of electronic music that pulls from the expansive arrangement styles of jazz and jam, and was borne from the stage as much as the studio. The addition of fellow Philadelphians ZONE Drum's dynamic percussion and Tygris' combination of electronic production, bass guitar, and turntablism has brought 5AM's music into fresh, improvisational territory. Over a year of trio appearances across the country and countless hours spent practicing and workshopping the tunes have forged this combined musical might into a fierce, producer-driven, multi-instrumental act, and this synergy has produced a lush, organic set of tunes; the Triovision EP.
The hi-fi production and fluid composition across Triovision are in line with 5AM’s conventional output, but the addition of Tygris and ZONE Drums on the record itself amounts to far more than just a touch of extra spice. Brazen cuts, organic fills, and instrumental synchronicity breathe a whole new life into 5AM’s patented blend of soul, jazz, and sheer bass weight. The added complement of Maya Elise’s vocal work and call-and-response guitar licks from Keith Wadsworth of Wax Future spread a lasting blanket of emotion across the record, accenting the concise production with succinct musicianship. Each track complements the greater whole of Triovision, gradually building on tempo, tension, and arrangement. It’s the typified journey through sound, brought to life through rounded edges, sultry chord progressions, and precision engineering. As an instrumentalist, 5AM’s chops have never been shone so brilliantly, and as a composer, Triovision is a well-rounded re-interpretation of his signature sonic adventures.
The Rust Music - Auburn Etch [VA]
The Rust Music is honored to present our third compilation, Auburn Etch. Departing from the variable genres of our previous Oxidized compilations, this collection of music is a full service package of brolic and boisterous bass music. We’re tapping into the global reservoir of talent for this release, presenting producers from the United States, United Kingdom, Ireland, Denmark, Poland, and Australia.
Featuring high-octane rhythms, visceral sound design, brutish breakdowns, and break-neck musical phrasing, each track on this compilation represents a one-inch-punch of high fidelity audio production. Danny Grooves, Rumpistol, and Easyjack have lent their production wizardry and impeccable rhythm to the compilation, anchoring a release that showcases the unhindered skillsets of 5AM, Maxfield, Wessanders, and a host of other young-blooded producers with a tenable ferocity for meticulously processed synthesis.
Auburn Etch is a necessity in the catalog of any discerning audiophile. It’s full of those sonic sensations that are fondly familiar, and those that are new and boundary breaking.
Art: Max Burstein
5AM - Onward
The smoothest psychedelic sound this side of the Milky Way can be found on Onward, a five track EP from the Philadelphia-based electronic musician 5AM aka Sam Andrus. Onward is the most ambitious effort yet in 5AM’s ongoing journey to blend jazz, funk and R&B with forward-thinking psychedelic bass music. Indeed, listening to Onward feels like lurking about an intergalactic jazz cafe where the atmosphere is electric, eyes are low, and harsh vibrations are checked at the door.
As a composer and arranger 5AM comes off calm and collected yet bold on this release. He flips and flexes sounds to their limits, but there’s no overreach. Complex arrangements of liquid glitches, space-travel synthesizers and weighty basslines somehow render themselves easy for ears to follow. With an obsessive attention to detail, 5AM has earned praise from his peers for immaculate mix-downs. Across Onward, each track is clean and buttoned-up. All sonic elements - vocals, guitar (courtesy of Keith Wadsworth of Wax Future), percussion and righteous keys - fit together like a puzzle.
But qualitative analyses aside, simply plunge into the feel of Onward. The mind, hungry for inspiration and inclined towards adventure, instinctively picks up what 5AM puts down and it becomes apparent: this is a fresh sound and attitude with lasting relevance for the future.
Art: 5AM
