Maru - Whack Lack Vol. 2

Like well-tuned clockwork Slug Wife continues to shoot out releases faster than we can tire of listening to them. This time around they're presenting a markedly different platter than their mainstay meals. The Whack Lack series could hardly be more opposed to the usual vicious and braggadocios neuro-hop shenanigans. Strip away the high-fidelity mastering, high-octane bass lines, and frankenstein sound design and what you are left with is pure, unadulterated beats and melodies. As they describe it, Whack Lack is "focusing on the right hook with the right beat and nothing more." Whack Lack Vol. 1 was curated by Slug Wife label head Seppa, and revealed a musically playful side of the producer not often explored. For Whack Lack Vol. 2, the gastropods tapped once more into the creative font of the dnb titan Reso who branded himself as Maru for the sake of differentiating the projects. 

Maru cracks right into the spirit of lo-fi hip hop with the ease of someone who's been slicing samples and cutting beats for a lifetime. The collection of tracks features all manner of soundscapes, moods, and atmospheres that are as droning as they are hypnotic. All the potential fanfare is left behind in favor of a pleasured palette of smooth synth hymns and dashes of liquid tonal modulation. 

"Easy Now" is the first true track on the album. It absolutely lives up to its namesake with a particular flair for the melancholy. The melody rides softly on a bedrock of more than a few choice drum hits. A small serving of horns break the steady trance of the track midway only to fade off, overpowered once more by that familiar, muffled lead line. "Single Malt" raises the medium to a modest head high, like the first hit of a well-crafted joint sending one straight to their happy place. There's a sense of weightlessness generated by the fluttering key samples. Note conversations fold over one another like melodies rolled into a torus, and therein lies the source of such a stratospheric aural space.

"After Eight" sputters and shuffles like a delinquent kicking up dust on their way to a late-night rendezvous. Moody chords keep the gaze low and locked on the road ahead, while casual instrument samples preclude any sense of monotony. Keep your ears wide open and you might even catch a few tasty fills that rock the rhythm harder than a New York City pothole rocks a taxi. Closing out the album is "Twilight", and there couldn't be a more appropriate fit. The first touch of those creamy tones bring forth the familiar experience of waving goodbye to a dear friend. It's the kind of atmosphere that leaves the tongue tasting more sweet than bitter, but with just enough longing that you might have to start the whole record over again.

Pushing unfamiliar content through channels established for particular soundscapes can be a questionable bet, but the gamble paid off in full for Slug Wife and Maru. The curation of these "battlewax" collections are a fresh interpretation of a deeply rooted musical underground, and fans of the typical Slug Wife offering are sure to find a delicious reprieve from the norm inside Whack Lack Vol. 2. Considering how tasteful this assortment of lithe beats is, one hopes Maru will stick around a bit and continue to cook up crisp servings of lo-fi goodness.

FOLLOW Maru:  Soundcloud   /   Facebook

Reso - Kyrios EP

Coming right back to the batting cage after a release just two weeks ago, Slug Wife is sending off another heavy hitter worth its weight in bass. The tenured low-end alchemist Reso has provided six tracks for his Kyrios EP, each with their own evolutionary soundscapes and aural experimentations. Reso has spent the better part of the past six years making a name for himself as a purveyor of all things novel within the ever-changing boundaries of bass music. Consequently, his high-polished neuro palette is right at home with Slug Wife. 

Kyrios is particularly noteworthy because the perceived depth of sound expands as you continue to listen over time. The overall scheme of the EP track to track is intentionally similar, with it’s boisterous bravado and synthesizers that slap like a knock out in the octagon. Sink your teeth deeper than the surface level, however, and what awaits below is the dynamic layering of percussion, audio artifacts, idiosyncratic melodies, and research leftovers. There is a motif of thematic cacophony across the EP that has become a staple in neuro stylizations which want to be more than just imposing, aggressive tracks.

The first track “Artifice” hits square in the chest like a sledgehammer. It builds up quietly, and with no fanfare. Half a minute in, the slight tickle of the sub signals the impending frequency violations, and before you know it you’re getting tossed back and forth by a maelstrom of full-bodied cuts. The track eschews dynamic growth in the composition to make way for small but constant shifts to the design of each tone and texture.

“Loaf Eye” creates a rest in the intensity of the EP’s flow. The track slows things down just a pinch to line up right with the perfect head-nod pocket. Rehashed granular textures float in and out of the mix, following steady sub rhythms and a driving percussive march. The tonal expansion follows an exponential curve, with the shredded phenotypes and low-end sound design taking on harsher edges as the song follows its composition.

“Sleazy” is without question the most impressive of the pack. Rocking a steady tempo with enough air to breathe, the song juggles zig-zagging melodies and criss-crossed stabs of high powered bass frequencies. The rhythm falls over itself and turns back around on a dime, flipping kicks over snaps over snares with an upright bounce. The track develops gradually and presents a constant cascade of resampled synthesis, slowly phasing into simulacrums of the underlying waveforms.

The assured quality that Slug Wife delivers with each successive release is something akin to the sun rising each morning. Couple that quality guarantee with a titan like Reso, and the results level the competition almost every time. As always, those mutated gastropods have their finger on the pulse of cutting edge electronic music and sound design pioneering. The calibre required to receive their stamp of approval is no less than top flight, and Reso smashed all the marks six times over with the Kyrios EP. Keep your senses sharp and focused on these slimy slugs from across the pond, because the next neck-breaker is probably right around the corner.

PURCHASE THE KYRIOS EP HERE

FOLLOW Reso:  Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Twitter 

iX - About Thyme EP

iX (who shyly tells me his first name is Lucas but doesn't want his full name exposed on the internet) is a new artist from Brooklyn, NY with a world-fusion sound informed by attentiveness to danceable rhythms and occasional moments of intense mid-bass sound design. iX is still quite a fresh face and About Thyme is his first foray into the formal release format. Longtime listeners of sacred or “Shanti” bass music will feel in familiar territory, though iX retains a more cerebral vibe with his sound design.

About Thyme further develops the sound that iX has been cultivating to date, but the EP is more intelligibly consumable and better organized than a Soundcloud stream. The EP opens with the title track "About Thyme" which serves as an intro into the assortment of sounds explored throughout the project. Next up is “Culture Shock”  which drives the mood forward with its cello while using the vocals to create ambience, builds a vibe with natural drums and other familiar wood and metal percussion samples, but ends unexpectedly. 

The third track “Såmsara” (a Sanskrit word in a Middle Eastern-themed track)  turns the intensity up considerably. While this track has a familiar Shanti vibe that fits in neatly with the iX catalogue, it is vastly more uptempo with oodles of fast hand drums alongside bass both squishy and fuzzy, with a voice wailing high above it. This is followed by "Vishnu" and then the final track, “Whale Vision.” Compared to his other work, "Whale Vision" is a more sparse offering that grounds itself in the lute, tingsha, and bird calls. The melody is more Far Eastern than his usual South Asian or Middle Eastern thematics, which plays up a stately and clean vibe. 

The gist one gets from Lucas' music is that he is clearly a product of his surroundings. There were some general Middle Eastern tones to his upbringing, but largely his sound seems informed by the more popular and well-exposed areas of underground bass music. Without formal musical training (he actually started making music recently after a devastating car accident), he still has an attentive ear and the potential to grow rapidly, having a well-established musical structure early in his career and a couple big shows under his belt already. At only 10 tracks and 360 followers, iX is clearly just beginning his journey, and About Thyme is a solid step forward.

He’s got a full slate of performances coming up fast including the Wook of Wall Street’sDisc Jam Pre Jawn in Westchester, PA tomorrow and two parties in his hometown; Beyond Dope’s huge heavy gathering on May 12, and a Psychedelic Sleepover Pre-Party on May 18 presented by The Rust Music.

FOLLOW iX:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp   /   Instagram

About Thyme further develops the sound that iX has been cultivating to date, but the EP is more intelligibly consumable and better organized than a Soundcloud stream. The EP opens with the title track "About Thyme" which serves as an intro into the assortment of sounds explored throughout the project. Next up is “Culture Shock”  which drives the mood forward with its cello while using the vocals to create ambience, builds a vibe with natural drums and other familiar wood and metal percussion samples, but ends unexpectedly. 

The third track “Såmsara” (a Sanskrit word in a Middle Eastern-themed track)  turns the intensity up considerably. While this track has a familiar Shanti vibe that fits in neatly with the iX catalogue, it is vastly more uptempo with oodles of fast hand drums alongside bass both squishy and fuzzy, with a voice wailing high above it. This is followed by "Vishnu" and then the final track, “Whale Vision.” Compared to his other work, "Whale Vision" is a more sparse offering that grounds itself in the lute, tingsha, and bird calls. The melody is more Far Eastern than his usual South Asian or Middle Eastern thematics, which plays up a stately and clean vibe. 

The gist one gets from Lucas' music is that he is clearly a product of his surroundings. There were some general Middle Eastern tones to his upbringing, but largely his sound seems informed by the more popular and well-exposed areas of underground bass music. Without formal musical training (he actually started making music recently after a devastating car accident), he still has an attentive ear and the potential to grow rapidly, having a well-established musical structure early in his career and a couple big shows under his belt already. At only 10 tracks and 360 followers, iX is clearly just beginning his journey, and About Thyme is a solid step forward.

He’s got a full slate of performances coming up fast including the Wook of Wall Street’sDisc Jam Pre Jawn in Westchester, PA tomorrow and two parties in his hometown; Beyond Dope’s huge heavy gathering on May 12, and a Psychedelic Sleepover Pre-Party on May 18 presented by The Rust Music.

FOLLOW iX:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp   /   Instagram

Mindex - Eclipsed EP

The Eclipsed EP is the latest addition to the robust catalog of superb psychedelic electronic music from Russian-born producer Mindex. It's dedicated to August 21, 2017,  the date of last year's total solar eclipse. This day had a tremendously profound impact on so many souls, especially those in the music community. "It felt like a new world after that day," said one individual who attended the Tipper & Friends 4321 Gathering in Astral Valley, Missouri. There Mindex offered what fans say was perhaps his most memorable performance to date. With the Eclipsed EP, Slava Mindex releases some of the most memorable moments from that set; may they wash listeners with waves of grounding nostalgia.

For two years, Extended Plays from Mindex have usually been rooted in their own dedicated musical motif, whether that's jazz on Jazzmental, four-on-the-floor on Opal Senses, or uptempo glitch on The Flavor. This latest effort steps away from that pattern. "DNA Dance" and "Arousal" could be characterized as downtempo, and the remaining three tracks as uptempo, but the lines are blurry. As a package, the release leans toward sacred bass more than prior composition from Mindex, but stylistically it's truly all over the map. Classification is ultimately not meaningful. It's just worth noting that Slava is diving into the depths of his own creativity with Eclipsed than he has before, which is saying a great deal considering the diversity of his available catalog.

The title track features a tumbling boulder of sub-bass that slogs at a depressed pace through rinsed out glitches. Hypnosis is induced through ethereal pads and brief melodic interludes from chimes written with great intent, only to be interrupted when the boulder splits and liquid magma spills across the stereo spread. According to Slava, "Evolution" is his "soundtrack for the process of the evolution of life forms on the planet Earth." He sets the stage with an aqueous primordial soundscape. Deep, atavistic tones enter the frame, and percussion follows thereafter. Airy melodies collide with grounding bass synthesizers in a ceaseless churning whirlpool that rips and pulls along its edges. Resolution never arrives, evoking the truth that the process of evolution has by no means reached its conclusion. The process could also be called a "DNA Dance" of sorts. To conclude the EP, this small ambient journey puts the mind at peace and provokes all sorts of anthropological ideations. 

This EP was at first exclusively available from the visionary artist collective Threyda as part of its first ever combined offering of music and art . One can purchase the EP by itself , or pair it with an entrancing, high-quality matte print (one of only 30) of the album cover by artist Ben Ridgeway. The first 20 prints are even signed by Ben and Slava. Considering the endearing mark Slava continues to make on the world and this community, this rare piece of merch will indeed become a treasure. The same can be said for the music. Eclipsed is an incendiary addition to the Mindex catalog and a sonic totem for those seeking to cherish the totality of August 21, 2017, and any other collective conscious memories they may associate with these vibrations. 

FOLLOW Mindex:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

Tsimba - Dématérialiser EP

Hybrid bass producer Tsimba is back with his fourth EP, Dématérialiser, an indulgent and meticulously crafted four-track release on Wormhole Music Group. Tsimba aka Mark Evans Musto has earned a reputation for quality in sound design, composition and performance, and he only elevates that reputation with this release.

Creative sound pervades Dématérialiser, and mastering from Andy Widdecomb aka DeeZ provides just the right gloss to it all. “Hugo” offers the EP’s most startling sound design. Tsimba gets inside the grooves of whatever synthesizer or plug-in he’s using and exposes its innards to the audience. This forward-thinking futuristic sound is mirrored by a more traditional pitched-down LFO a la early dubstep, setting up a novel call and response. Synchronizing with the snare is a squeaky clean sample of a sword being unsheathed. Minor but delightful details like this mark Dématérialiser as the work of a craftsman.

The title track is one of the strongest single tunes from Tsimba to date. The sound design is immaculate and the mix-down balanced. Tsimba flawlessly applies distortion to a very choice vocal sample, and places that sample just so in the arrangement as to throttle the vibes into warp drive along with a tempo switch. Mark, a drummer and metal head in his younger years, laces the driving drum and bass rhythm with his ferocious hybrid bass sound and creates a thrilling sequence that will leave even the most scrupulous listener fulfilled. 

Mark’s “future roots” sound, as he calls it, has always been prefaced on three elements; well-rounded and foundational percussion, a girthy, ear-tickling synthesizer stack, and familiar, forceful melodies. All these elements are present on Dématérialiser. It has all the elements of an excellent release - it is an excellent release, but there’s something missing. 

Tsimba has nasty sounds, no question, and he knows how to sling them at the listener to crushing effect. But this skill is becoming more commonplace and therefore less compelling. Take “Ghetto 5000” featuring Tygris. The drops showcase some extremely tight sound design - numerous, diverse, and unequivocally fat examples of it. But to what end? It comes across as heaviness with little direction, and this finds my interest waning. Tsimba is undoubtedly good at what he's good at - but we hear more beneath the surface that’s untapped. 

Still, Dématérialiser is praise-worthy. “Hugo” sounds like one of those cuts that other producers will eagerly scoop up for their sets this Summer. We look forward to hearing Tsimba himself play these out at Spring and Summer stops including Psychedelic Sleepover, nights with Brightside in Philly and Mickman in Boston, and more to be announced. 

Follow Tsimba:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /    Bandcamp   /   Instagram

Renraku Global Media - RKU-V01

Renraku Global Media (RGM) is known for coupling forward-thinking artists with a platform that is no nonsense and all business. Spearheading a mission to disperse “high-quality content for discerning citizens”, Renraku routinely works with artists from around the world who specialize in some of the most far-out interpretations of electronic music. In keeping with the spirit of innovation and left-field content, the label teamed up with four unnamed producers, who may or may not be some Renraku favorites, to craft a four-track EP with a serious catch: it’s a vinyl-only release presented sans artist or track names.

Kaya Bowman, co-founder of RGM, provided us with a few words about the thought process behind this endeavor:

As a label our philosophy has always been to seek out the most interesting sounds & ideas regardless of how they will be received. Alex, our co-owner had the idea to put out a               record as close to a white label dubplate as we could put out - so why not try our take on what's popping right now? What would a dubplate look like now from a non-dnb label? What would that sound like?

Keeping that goal in mind, each of the artists involved offers a delicious reimagining of the classic four-on-the-floor attitude. Complete with asymmetrical glitches, foreboding sound design, and melodious development, the tracks are primed for both the dance floor and the headspace. The aural landscape of the plate is particularly lo-fi, resurfacing a certain nostalgia for the 90’s warehouse influence on electronic production. Each artist crafted a palate of tones that blend in seamlessly to one another, while simultaneously eschewing the dynamic range that can sometimes become convoluted in the production of modern hi-fi electronic music.

For the affluent collectors, archivers, and audiophiles the world over, this is a must-have release that will come to market in extremely limited numbers. Make sure to grab one of these coveted vinyls before they find a home in someone else’s collection.

If you'd like to get a taste of what the vinyl has to offer, RGM has graciously premiered one track for streaming, and a Noisia Radio rip of a second track, which is included above.

Purchase the vinyl

FOLLOW Renraku Global Media:  Facebook  |  Soundcloud  |  Bandcamp

Mickman & DeeZ - Invaders [Single]

Mickman and DeeZ each channel their prolific sound engineering ability into "Invaders", an absolute wipeout of a song self-released as the pair prepare to take the United States on their second tour together in as many years. Both producers have outdone themselves here, linking up to push out some of their gnarliest energy and cleanest sound design yet. 

These two go back a bit. In 2013 when they released their first collaboration "Kindred Junket", Andy Widdecomb aka DeeZ was performing under another name and Cameron Ingraham aka Mickman had yet to release his first album Square One. Their second effort came a couple years later as "Schism", an ode to the double-speak of former President Richard Nixon. DeeZ is the most frequent collaborator with Mickman. Well, he's actually the only collaborator with Mickman, at least on a tune that's been made public (besides some cuts by FCW on "Dissolution"). 

The pair appear to be kindred spirits, musically at least. Their styles gel so fluently on this cut. "Invaders" has the Mickman sway, a syncopated groove of hip-hop drums and stinging, interrogatory synthesis that can turn a mind inside out. Except here the synth work leverages DeeZ's sound design, known to be obscene and potentially illegal in Singapore. The mastering, too, was a collaborative effort. 

For an opportunity to hear this live on Funktion One sound, grab tickets to their New York City tour stop presented by The Rust Music with support from Jizzy Fra and Wiseyoungfool. The action gets underway at 9:00pm at Brooklyn Bazaar on Thursday, April 19. If you're too far away or just deadass don't like the smell of New York CIty, they're also up in Chattanooga, Boston, Philadelphia and Maine. The thought of these performances can make one's blood boil. The craftsmanship live and on the record from these two has been grown in bounds since they first hit the road together last year. They're riding the ferocious cutting edge of bass music, and there's no put on - it's all delivery. 

FOLLOW Mickman:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook 

FOLLOW DeeZ:   Bandcamp  /  Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

Craftal - Boxed In EP

A clog in the creative canal can constrict many musicians. Any artist, for that matter, must navigate boulders and board ups that would block the path to expression. In this context, the title of Craftal's latest release - Boxed In - may be misleading. Boxed In reaches out and embraces the broadest universe of patterns, textures, arrangements and sound designs to date. Anything but restricted, Craftal’s creativity darts out in dozens of directions across four glitch hop and halftime tracks.

This comes courtesy of Aquatic Collective - it being their lucky 13th release. This group of artists, originally inspired by the fact of the ocean is 95% unexplored, probes more terrestrial territory with Craftal. His music is grainy, in your face, and less, well, aqueous than their usual offering. The spirit of artistic exploration between two matches up one-to-one, though. 

Precise, mechanized sound design is Craftal’s forte, and he flexes it over kinetic hip-hop and halftime beats. He first began sharing tunes four years ago, releasing a stream of singles, one EP, and a mix for Wormcast since. A series of exciting sounds appeared on “Coming Down the Hatch”, a quick spin of works-in-progress released almost one year ago. Surprisingly only one of those WIPs made the cut for Boxed In. This almost certainly signals that someone is sitting on a stash of unreleased songs. But what about the tunes that were released? 

“Oscillopathic” and “Best Intentions” stand out, while “Alpha Bitsy” and the title track lay, not for lack of luster, in the cut. Our modus operandi is to always offer something diverse in sound design, but the sheer amount of differentiation in Craftal’s music sets it apart. One-off spectacular sounds that amaze then appear never again are common across the EP. The word and song “Alpha Bitsy” is applicable here, as Craftal’s grooves generally grow by stringing together many small bits and pieces of extraterrestrial sound. 

“Boxed In” and “Oscillopathic” tread heavily through the low end as these bits traipse in the higher registers. The swamp pervading “Oscillopathic” is particularly moist and filthy. A high point arrives fifty-five seconds in when a scaly synthesizer syncopates for just a moment with the halftime drums and unlocks a mighty sway. But it's too brief. Maintaining this movement throughout the track could have made for a more addictive listen, but it’s a mighty and mind-blowing moment nonetheless. 

Craftal, who hails from Boulder, Colorado, has ability on the oscillators that's difficult to deny. However, he’s only begun being booked to perform. Solasta Festival, Stilldream Festival and stops at Denver's Cervantes Other Side and Black Box form the bulk of his gigging resume. Intuition suggests this resume may grow in 2018 to the benefit of crowds everywhere that seek the squelch. In addition to a potentially unreleased trove, Craftal now has four more heaters from Boxed In to let rip when he does begin taking the stage more frequently. Stay chooned for that. 

FOLLOW Craftal:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

FOLLOW Aquatic Collective:   Bandcamp   /   Soundcloud   /   Facebook

Wonk#ay Records - Pull Up EP

Something about the United Kingdom foments the growth of dark, twisted bass music so properly, and our friends at Wonk#ay Records serve up the latest example of this well established relationship with Pull Up. This ambitious release showcases the talents of Objcts, Dystopik, Rupta, Zimbu, and includes an absolutely smashing collaboration from neuro heavy-weights Kursa and Seppa. All six producers come correct with their signature idiosyncrasies and sound design exploits.

In October of 2017, Wonk#ay Records had heads spinning with their compilation Feed the Contagious. This collection of tunes was a mutagenic foray into the most aggressive corners of contemporary low end production, and received an explosive response from fans and fellow producers alike. This time around, Wonk#ay presents a more compressed package (pun intended), and while they scaled down the size, the impact is no less visceral.

Objcts has perhaps the most melodious approach on the EP with “Here’s One I Prepared Earlier” graciously combining the stark, staccato textures of neuro-hop with the occasional stab and fading of delicious chimes and lead tones in the upper registers. With a constant beat in the backdrop, and a few well placed rhythmic breaks, the head-nod is strong with this aural serving.

Dystopik’s “Running Away” opens with ambient rumblings and distorted pads washing tones over the track. Quick incoming is a soft sing-song melody occasionally giving way to a voluptuous snare on the downbeat. Over the course of 90 seconds the whole track destabilizes into a maelstrom of down-sampled synthesis and rugged glitch textures that reinforce the experimental arrangement and tonal design.

Rupta wastes no time jumping right into the action with “Repochushions”; 12 seconds in and the track has already descended into a combination of shredded textures over a drumstep rhythm. The entire track is a solid thwack of choked-up bass tones and wild frequency shifts, a thick harmony of constant evolution and 100% pure beef.

While both devilishly impressive on their own terms, Kursa and Seppa often come together to produce some of the most aggressive, far-out, boisterous songs in rotation within the wider bass music community. “Pris” a bold and demonstrably vicious addition to the Pull Up EP, with brain-melting bass lines that crunch, fold, warp, and stutter-step their way through the entire composition. By the time the second half of the song comes into focus, this machine-gun-laser-annihilation takes a turn for the stretched-out and wobbly. Even more deranged bass movements envelope everything from 0-300hz in a firebrand strike of uncouth synthesis.

Zumbu closes out the compilation with his contribution “Higher”, and spares no effort in flexing straight bass weight right onto the listener’s head. With an almost slapstick percussion arrangement carrying on for the entire track, every phrase and refrain is particularly unique and programmed with a multitude of synthesis dialogue and asymmetrical audio manipulation.  

With the content of each successive release becoming more high-octane than the last, Wonk#Ay Records has set before themselves a formula that brings success to their labelmates and collaborative partners. Curating such niche catalogs while maintaining well-flavored artist pairing is no easy task, and somehow they rise to the occasion every time. Be contienscious in the months ahead, as Wonkay is certainly far from finished with their arsenal of releases for 2018.

FOLLOW Wonka#y Records:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Website

FOLLOW The Artists:

Objcts:   Soundcloud   

Dystopik:   Soundcloud   

Rupta:   Soundcloud

Kursa:   Soundcloud

Seppa:   Soundcloud

Zimbu:   Soundcloud

Lapa - Spirit Vessel

A major part of the allure of electronic music as an overarching genre is the niche that it provides to artists who find themselves existing between the defined lines of musical schemas. Ilya Goldberg, known by his moniker of Lapa, is a veritable branch of the growing stylistic tree that contains countless other producers, musicians, and audio engineers whose product is an amalgamation of influences, instrumentation, and performance execution. A violinist, producer, and all-around versatile musician by trade, Ilya himself was a progenitor of the influential rise of combining state of the art live sampling technology and live instrumentation. Having joined Emancipator both on the stage and in the studio from 2011 on, the harmonious interplay of his violin coupled with the composition and brevity of the produced track underneath would go on to captivate tens of thousands across the United States touring and festival circuit. Of course, being the virtuoso that he is, Ilya would eventually go on to flesh out his personal musical vision through the creation of the Lapa project.

2015 saw the first Lapa studio release titled “Meeting of the Waters”. A creamy concoction of downtempo and ambient soundscapes, the album is riddled with the back and forth conversations of brilliant string movements and tonally smooth synthesis. Having set the standard for his musical output, Lapa has now released a second full-length album, “Spirit Vessel”. It is a vibrant blend of organic and digital timbres, with a strong emphasis on instrumentation. The album instantly stands out as an artifact of venerable significance, an archetype for the hybridization of musical styles.

“Back to Africa” begins with a wondrous major melody, and becomes a musical allusion to the sensation of weightlessness once the staccato hi-hats are introduced. As the beat breaks down to the ever familiar boom-bap shuffle, filtered arpeggios dance in and out of the mix, gently following the key of various melody tones trading the lead line around the aural space. Passing the halfway point of the track, those familiar, floaty tones reemerge, bursting into existence in and around a climactic bridge of percussion and sustained monophonic note-play.

“Stoika”, a collaborative effort with Random Rab, starts off with high-treble strings producing triplet arpeggios, followed shortly thereafter by the percussive cushion that props up the melody. The song is almost entirely organic tones until midway, when psychedelic synth lines float in and out existence through smooth filters and choice touches of reverb. The cumulative blend of repetitious textures create an ongoing head-nod hypnosis that begs to be rinsed through over and over again.

The album concludes with “Empty Space”, a 13-minute musical narrative that summons imagery of damp rainforests adorned with vaporous clouds that rests just atop the canopy. Background tones gradually rise and fall on chromatic scales while vivacious refrains introduce new melodies at a constant rate. It feels so expertly produced for fidelity, and simultaneously feels so far from the synthetic overtures of so many similar musical endeavors. The track comes to a beautifully amorphous conclusion, transitioning from a rhythmic composition to an ambient adventure, and settles on a harmony fit for the horns of welcoming angels.

Beyond just the brilliance of the studio album itself, the Lapa live performance is a treat all its own. With drummer Brandon Warren and multi-instrumentalist Nickles D’Onofrio, Lapa is a fully functioning live act that combines Ableton Live and its powerful looping, sequencing, and sampling capabilities with the rooting tones of drums, bass guitar, and violin. Playing on DJ tropes and theories concerning transitions and mixing tracks, the performance is a seamless start to finish ballet of the auditory minds atop the stage. If good fortune comes to pass, hopefully Lapa and his outfit will be gracing ears live and in action sooner rather than later. With his newest album available across most major distribution and streaming platforms, there is no excuse for being out of the loop when it comes to this virtuoso of his craft.

FOLLOW Lapa:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

Ovoid - Yea Boi EP

Adam Westover aka Ovoid is vaulting into 2018 with two EPs to follow his full-length debut last year. The downtempo LP Life was a passion project that revealed his artistic persona. His next release Abstraction teased a transition to an uptempo style that now has free reign on the Yea Boi EP, his latest release through Addictech Records. At a clipping pace, Ovoid is demonstrating the breadth of his artistic capacity while cleaving close to his influences and developing his core sound.

Yea Boi is just two tracks, the first an irreverent tune called “Ranch” with a stoner metal vibe and a tight, close-to-the-vest acoustic guitar. Adam has been quite enamored with the guitar since youth, even joining a stoner metal band in high school. The influence of this early project is felt most strongly in the song’s final third, when the harsh twangs of the reverb-laden guitar counter the formerly dominant dampened plucks. The sound of rock drums to finish measures in this section also contributes to the metal taste, and is a breath of fresh air in a largely squelchy and farty track. This opener lacks a storyline progression, but manages to be interesting and weird enough to stand on its own.

The second track is the main dish. Grounded once again in the guitar, Ovoid transitions to a more engaging mood, giving us a longer buildup of sound design moments and pitch-bent sampling. With a nod to early psychedelic rock via tanpura (the subtle droning string support to the sitar), we find the track spin into a metallic breakdown full of gnarled strings heavy with the weight of rock n' roll; this pairs quite well with the squeals of the highs. While Yea Boi could be seen as old-vs-new – from the beginning we see the guitar compete with the synthesizers for ear time – it is in the welter and waste of artful distortion and reverb that the combo truly thrives. While “Ranch” gets to this space jocularly, “Yea Boi” is more revelatory, showcasing the true power of psychedelic metal in a dance music context.

With this latest release, Ovoid is more firmly established as a glitch aesthete with guitar chops and a penchant for heavy waves of steel vibration. His earlier music stands as a testament to the emotional depth that his talents can express, while his new releases demonstrate that he can knock out dancefloor bangers with a vengeance. With another two tracks out for him to stand behind, Ovoid has more skin in the game and continues to add to an evolving story of interlocking influences unfolding before our very ears.

You can purchase the music through Addictech Records. 

FOLLOW Ovoid:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp   /   Instagram   /   Spotify

STZZZY & Inner Ocean Records - Homegrown

Homegrown is a collaborative compilation between Inner Ocean Records and STZZZY (aka Steezyasfuck) created to honor the home producer. Released by Inner Ocean and pressed onto delicious cotton candy-colored vinyl, Homegrown features a dream team of artists from the broad universe of beats music. With heavyweights like Axian, Eevee, and Borealism, and newer names like Kazumi Kaneda, RudeManners and Senoy, this tape will dazzle fans of STZZZY and Inner Ocean, as well as anyone not yet familiar with these two juggernauts of chill.

According to its Soundcloud description, STZZZY is a collective that aims “to showcase the unique core sound and artistic values from producers such as J-Dilla, Nujabes, Ta-Ku, MF Doom, Uyama Hiroto, and many more.” This is what we talk about when we talk about beats music. These two collectives have been elevating this sound for years; STZZZY with more than 370,000 Youtube subscribers, and Inner Ocean whose founder claims to have hand-pressed “at least 10,000” cassette tapes in his life. Much of the best work on their channels comes from home producers or “bedroom producers”; the often unsigned, sometimes unknown but always unrelenting creators who put forth exceptional music from their own homes with modest technological means.  

“Home producers aren’t anything new, but I think that in many ways their prominence in modern music scenes is really strong,” says Cory Giordano, the founder of Inner Ocean Records whom we introduced you to on Cassette Store Day. This phenomenon is buoyed both by easy access to compositional technology (SP-404, Ableton), and the plethora of platforms where producers can self-release (Soundcloud, Spotify). “Really great music can come from anywhere in any living situation with just a few tools on hand,” Cory continues. Beat music thrives online, as STZZZY’s substantial following attests to. Yet even the greatest new sounds can often dissolve into the ether of the internet. Inner Ocean is particularly proud of this vinyl press because it takes those sounds and “stamps them into history”.

Homegrown includes producers from at least six countries and three continents, but the vibe across the compilation is consistent. It’s a blend of two sub-genera of beat music; jazzy, soulful grooves and more spacey, ambient sounds. The latter is typified by Eevee of the Netherlands. With “Wonderland”, she continues to expand a dense discography containing over eight full-length beat tapes, and a raft of singles and EPs. “Wonderland” begins exactly how it ends. The rhythm is ubiquitous for the duration of the 4½ minute track, and can only be described as hypnotic. Chords slowly change note and scale as they are stretched and pitched with a laissez-faire intent, adding to the intoxicating dance of melody and percussion.

Finding his home in New York City and standing atop an impressive discography that includes close to two dozen LPs, EPs, and singles, RudeManners offers an irresistible jazz flair with his song “Flow”. The producer lets his samples shine through the mix with an organic timbre. The saxophone carries the track effortlessly and keeps the ears chasing after it like the warmth in the throat that chases a sip of whiskey. Groovy keys, classic snares and steady closed hi-hats follow the lush brass melody and bring the track together with a particularly musical cohesion.

On the tape’s tail end Senoy caught our ear. Hailing from Berlin, his debut record Shine was released through Inner Ocean. He previously produced and performed as part of a duo called Parra for Cuva that features a stronger electronic undercurrent than Senoy’s latest musical endeavors, though his contribution “Tibet” is still more akin to electronica than any other song on Homegrown. True to its name, assorted samples of Tibetan chants breathe life into the track. The chord structures fall over each other with an aqueous attitude tailing right behind bright foley samples on the 2s and 4s of each measure. The beat is constant, save for a few well-placed rhythmic turnarounds, and helps solidify the song into a lullaby.

Pervading this project is the niche sound and aesthetic that has endeared STZZZY and Inner Ocean to so many faceless but feeling online listeners through the years. This project finds both curating entities at their best. Instead of being chosen from a pool of track submissions, each artist was hand-selected for the tape, creating an embarrassment of riches to the benefit of you, the audience. An extremely timely tribute to the home producer, Homegrown is as well a testament to the unbound potential for collaboration and curation in the expanding world of beats, sweet beats.

Limited vinyl copies of Homegrown are available for pre-order on Inner Ocean's website. 

TRACKLIST:

Side A

1. Keem the Cipher - (The I in We)

2. Eevee - Wonderland

3. Seneca B - Ethic

4. RudeManners - Flow

5. Soho - Cenario

6. Kazumi Kaneda - Steep Cliff

Side B

1. Axian - Daydream

2. Idealism - Evenings

3. Arbour - Bump This

4. Knowmadic - Roam

5. Oatmello - Juice

6. Dominic Pierce - Energy Stream

7. Borealism - HXMEGRXWN

8. Kawfee - Satin

9. Senoy - Tibet

FOLLOW STZZZY:   Youtube   /   Soundcloud

FOLLOW Inner Ocean Records:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Spotify   /   Instagram

Co-Written by Pasquale Zina & Mark McNulty

Time Resonance Music - Eclecta I

Eclecta I is the first compilation from Time Resonance Music, a label curated and created by Russian producer Slava Mindex. As its name suggests, it’s an eclectic mix that shifts between more laid-back tunes from artists such as Supertask, Primate and 5AM to some heavier sounds from Hullabalo0 and Spirit Tech. But despite the variation in energy, there is a clean, deeply organic quality consistent throughout the compilation.

The 17-track project opens with a lush downtempo track from Dillard featuring sultry guitar riffs wandering through hazy pads and long-tailed, misty reverbs. From here the music moves through a multitude of micro-genres. Although how one chooses to label these genres is both up for interpretation and somewhat of a moot point, it can be helpful to throw tiny descriptions on to the music and see what sticks. “Downtempo” describes most of the tracks on Eclecta I, but this ranges from breakbeat to melodic IDM, to hip-hop.

This complexity sets Time Resonance apart from many labels, and a single track might traverse multiple genres. Take for example the collaboration between Mindex and Supertask, “Butterfly FX”. It floats seamlessly between sing-song melodies and alien sound design. Although arranged and harmonized much like a lullaby, the song unfolds to reveal a heavy, growling bass, twisting and unfurling itself beneath bells and tender flutes, oozing throughout the stereo space. The simple, sensual tastes of Supertask blend nicely with Mindex’s colorful and curious imagination, opening up a psychedelic space within the compilation that is a defining quality of the Time Resonance label. A surprisingly chill kLL sMTH tune follows suit with open, deceptively simple melodies steeped in bubbly sound design. The energy begins to escalate with 5AM’s sunny mid-tempo track “Multiplex”, leading into some heavier sounds to follow and be dispersed throughout the compilation. Mindex and Zenturion’s “CBD”, Spirit Tech’s “Astral Bodies” and especially Hullabalo0’s “Abeba” share the bulk of the heavier psy bass within the compilation.

From aqueous samples, to background vocals, to crunchy percussive textures, there is some element of nature and life to be found in each track on “Eclecta”. Although Mindex himself is probably best known for his mind-bending, spine-tingling neuro-bass sound design, this should not come as a surprise. The sounds alone do not create the powerful effect imparted on to the listener. It is the way in which the sounds interact with each other, the way in which he weaves them together, that bring them to life. When this occurs, a piece of music begins to speak its own language, one that we intuitively understand. This is emblematic of patterns and symbiotic relationships that occur throughout nature, and further defined by the literal sonic representations of natural elements such as grass, trees, water, and human voices present throughout this compilation.

Only through a deep love, fascination and dedication to the pure physics of sound and music can one truly tap into this language. Slava and his like-minded friends on this compilation speak this language fluently, and with Eclecta they’ve graciously invited us into their conversation.

FOLLOW Time Resonance Music:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp

FOLLOW Mindex:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp   /   Spotify

The Glitch Shop - Exit Through the Glitch Shop

Based out of the South-Western UK, The Glitch Shop is a collective, record label, and production company that strives to expose, promote, and propagate artists within the global glitch-hop community. Since 2013, they have been releasing an ongoing compilation series entitled Glitch Shop 'Till You Drop, boasting an artist roster that includes Hurtdeer, Frequent, Poztman, and even the enigmatic Qebrus. Settling into 2018, The Glitch Shop has provided once again an incredibly diverse and aurally palpable compilation entitled Exit Through The Glitch Shop. The release includes 18 brand new, individually crafted tracks from as many producers, with each tune espousing on the tropes and staples of each artist, while also maintaining the asymmetrical glitch soundscape that has always defined The Glitch Shop. 

Katch begins the journey through the compilation with a sub-heavy neck-breaker, "Unclouded". The track features complex neuro-synthesis propped up by lightly dusted percussion that keeps the center of the mix saturated with just enough movement. Massive side-chaining is present throughout, allowing the drums to smack properly while the low-end simultaneously bursts to the surface of the mix.

Detrivore takes a 4-on-the-floor approach with the track "Nostalgia", combining nightclub rhythms and tactile sound design. Haunting synthesis slathered in reverb bounces back and forth over a steady shuffle, and fades away just long enough every now and again to allow a smooth transition into a half-time breakdown. These elements morph the track into a much darker presentation by its end.

Epsilonite absolutely crushes with their aptly named contribution, "Funk Anvil". Intoxicating melodies creep into existence from the get-go, only to be drowned out by vicious bass growls and stabs modulated by low-frequency oscillators. The rhythmic arrangement of the track is particularly alluring, with drums falling away at seemingly random intervals, breaking up any semblance of monotony and breathing extra life into the term "broken beat".

Hurtdeer brings some always beloved drum & bass (d&b) to the table with Why Not Die, complete with vocal glitches leading the song from start to finish. The drum lines keep true to the tempo throughout, but feature a number of wild crashes and fills that top up the atmosphere with the classic hi-hat smacks and shuffles that characterize archetypal d&b music.

After piecing yourself back together from a thorough listening session with this compilation, remain vigilant in watching the actions of The Glitch Shop. There is bound to be even more juicy releases throughout 2018 from our friends across the pond. 

TRACKLIST:

1. Katch - Unclouded
2. Detrivore - Nostalgia
3. Avum - Error 404
4. Epsilonite - Funk Anvil
5. Poztman - Enouement
6. Arkistrate - Trapped In Space
7. Ix - KoDaM
8. Fluxtape - The Piano Downstairs
9. FUTURIST - Full Metal
10. Synergy Sound - Flow of Time
11. Rusty Mustard - Discovery
12. Audiogutter - Temples
13. Hurtdeer - Why Not Die
14. T-Mech - Obey
15. Envelope - Calyx of Held
16. Purfakt - Clock
17. Azuruk - Power Waning
18. Beanboy - Not home

FOLLOW The Glitch Shop:   Bandcamp   /   Soundcloud   /   Facebook

Smigonaut - Constructs EP

"The small dude facing the big skyscraper...the individual's struggle with society as a whole" - Josh Kipersztok a.k.a. Smigonaut (Artist: 5AM)

You heard the Boston-based producer Smigonaut become untethered on Oxidized Vol. 2, now prepare yourself for a visceral and intellectual music experience; Constructs EP, his most outstanding work to date.  

"My big theme for the EP and the artwork [created by 5AM] was feeling like sometimes it’s you vs. the world, and how that can feel alienating especially when you try to defy conventional norms,” says Josh Kipersztok a.k.a. Smigonaut. “How many of these feelings are just based on social constructs?"

Having first heard him on collaborations with Jade Cicada, we’ve always known Smigonaut to possess exceptional production capabilities. Josh was recently promoted to the Quality Control Department of the award-winning production plug-in designers Izotope, so we trust his ear to say the least. In this instance, Smigonaut goes for the jugular with his sound design again and again, particularly on the title track “Constructs”. This was a tasty ID on Smigonaut's Tipper & Friends Mix, and it bangs even harder the second time around. 

Every sound on the four-track EP is deliberate, defined, and delicious, be it a split-second crunch on “Pocket Drones”, oscillating sub-bass on “Double Life”, or the music box melody on the downtempo track “Anomolous”. The work is also exceptionally mastered, polished to pulse with a cerulean luster. Andy Widdecomb a.k.a. DeeZ performed the mastering on the first track “Pocket Drones”, and Sandy Finlayson a.k.a. Seppa is to be credited for the rest.

The Constructs EP is the most jammin’ example to date of that sound which makes Smigonaut special; propulsive and dirty left-field bass presented through melodious, jazzy songwriting. Hear this on “Double Life”, when the producer pulls the rug out from under a Saturday Night Fever-ish bassline and whimsical key lead to reveal a hyped-up wobbler. Josh played classical piano throughout his childhood and adolescence. He says he's "out of practice", but he clearly crafts his music with a fundamental understanding of note relationships. 

Utilizing the emotive power of these note relationships within the context of electronic textures and timbres creates dramatic moments, as when an indulgent piano lick swaggers in on the heels of some absolute filth on “Constructs”. Where the music is so precise and mechanized, it is also so human, so dependent on feel. The high technicality would be hollow without the intuitive, emotional threads woven often with the piano. By the same token these catchy and accessible melodies wouldn’t strike nearly as hard without Josh’s reinforced electronic synthesis. 

The prevalence of technology is hinted at across the work. “Pocket Drones” reminds us of “black mirror” or other such ominous nicknames for the smart phone. The turn of phrase conjures dystopian themes, particularly the concept of surveillance, and the album artwork syncs up with this thread.

From the subtle play of ideas, to the daring sound design, through the personal relevance for the artist all tied together by the alluring artwork, this is a magnum opus of sorts for Smigonaut. "The individual should not fear their own path even if it doesn’t follow the norms,” Josh says, again touching on the theme for his EP. In other words, being anomalous or different is not something to fear, but something to embrace. In his creative endeavors, Smigonaut has been faithful to this ethos. In this instance,  it's led to his most outstanding and impressive work to date. Pick up Constructs here.

FOLLOW Smigonaut:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Twitter   /   Instagram

Occult. - Dacha, Phoenix, Village EP Trilogy

Occult. is the musical work of Ollie Lock from the United Kingdom. Occult. has released three projects in just over a month; Phoenix Lights on November 15th with label Yellow Flower, Village on December 15th with Substruct, and Dacha today, December 18th, on Fent Plates. Phoenix Lights is rooted in hip-hop, a style which appears subtly across the Occult. catalog. This five-track record, however, finds Occult. at ease within the hip-hop lexicon, able to shape the sound to fit his non-intrusive ethos. Village has ambient valleys and head-tossing high-points, but ultimately it's - as Substruct describes - “that organic cozy vibe that we’re all looking for this time of year.” Dacha is mighty impressive, fusing styles and probably offering the most direct example of Occult.’s garage background. 

Many electronic music enthusiasts in the United States may not be familiar with the style called “garage” which originated in the United Kingdom. Occult. is both an accessible introduction to the genre for those who aren't familiar, and a refreshing nuanced take on the style for those who are. He stretches percussion-driven, dance-friendly sound across diverse influences from ambient to lo-fi hip-hop. Can any supremely talented electronic producer these days be boxed-in to one particular style? No, but garage does seem to be the staging ground for Occult’s sound. One word we can definitively paint across this music; “innovation”.

Much of Occult’s music is low-fidelity, particular his hip-hop work on Phoenix Lights. This little release could hold its own among any of the best lo-fi snippets released this side of the pond, though tunes like “Enoch” with it’s slight shuffle betray the producer’s roots in dance music, which is of course no fault. “Twin Lakes” off Village stones the listener with its low-fidelity ambiance.  This track and most others on Village exemplify Occult’s faith in tone; pure, simple, omnipotent tone. His synthesizers and keys are rudimentary in terms of their sonic dimension. But through Occult.'s delicate and ultimately simple juxtaposition of tones, raw mood and power radiate from the music. Occult also leans heavily on white and ambient noise to construct dimension and depth within his mixes. Some sounds, like the ambient noise and half-intelligible vocals on “Flex101” from Dacha, are set deep into the mix. Others float near the surface. 

Occult music is striking in its simplicity. There’s no trace of pretension, and no overt effort to impress upon the listener. It’s more like, “Here’s a groovy organization of sound. Enjoy, or don’t.” For the contemplative individual, it’s ideal. The music creates a psychological canvas for the listener to paint his or her own creative thoughts and reflections upon. The listening experience defined as much by the listener as by the musician himself. There’s a vocal sample in the tune "Pegasus" - perhaps our favorite song across the three releases - which speaks to this idea. This track is masterful, a synthesis of acid jazz and garage. An arpeggiated synthesizer turns cartwheels in the background while hi-hats shuffle in the foreground, and a saxophone rides through the middle atop of wave a lush bass. Occult. music may be intellectual, but it's also undeniably groovy and danceable. This is the killer combination that, at least for this listener, defines greatness in dance music; the summum bonum of electronica. 

Each of these three prolific releases has been pressed to vinyl. Given the depth of composition, the low, vaguely defined sub bass, and the variety of ambient noise across this work, we're certain it will sound phenomenal on wax. Pick one up on the producer's Bandcamp account while they last, and stay chooned for new music from Occult. Maybe the producer will chill after dropping three phenomenal releases in just over a month. For some reason, though, we doubt it. 

FOLLOW Occult.:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp  

Hullabalo0 - Towers

It's been a long time coming since I heard my first Hullabalo0 serving. I found "Kuria" through EDM.com in 2014, to be precise, and since then I've witnessed his crunk and jazz influence fuse with psychedelia in unconceivable ways. After several EP releases with Street Ritual, Swamp Music, ShadowTrix Music, and a heap of compilation features and singles, Towers is Hullablao0's latest self-released effort in a saga of squelchy, jazzy and funky neuro-bouncin basstravaganzas.

The album is made up of 11 songs, with a consistent synthesis aesthetic that is present throughout the album. Arps sounding like sparks of a plasma field fire, oomphed out yet non-invasive wubs, sparse sound placement and a shivelight of silence which always shines through the crystal-clear mixes form a truly curious overall balance of sophisticated jazziness and outright silliness.

When you hear these songs, it’s hard not to smile. Certain ludicrous thoughts come to mind during some of the album's best moments; "Apple Seed" and "Fos" sound like the VIP lounge of an intergalactic disco inside a wormhole. There’s an unintended yet precise pun about the Californian music group; the trippy ending of "Business" and beginning of "Waauuoo" utilize Hullabalo0's cinematic atmospheres, as heard in his 2014 track, "Leviathan," with samples of mega-old films. The synthesis of sneezes into the hilariously hard-hitting "Dad Sneeze"; and tracks like "La Vita È.." with an overall euphoric vibe and neat glitchy groove present a ripe balance.

Having read about Hullabalo0's background through his recent interview with ThisSongSlaps.com, and learning that this dude "might as well have been born on the moon" due to living in countless countries in his upbringing and the inability to pinpoint where he is from, the extremely alien nature of his music can be more easily contextualised. These sounds don't necessarily fit in any one location or culture on the planet, and they may as well be extra-terrestrial compositions with a faint yet welcome whiff of humanity to them.

Towers is another step in the maturation and diversification of Hullabalo0's sound, and it is an ode to the work-flow optimization that he's achieved after the past few years to reach a consistent sound and production quality. To balance the article with some constructive criticism, it should be mentioned that while the whole album is highly danceable, a few of the songs such as “Waauuoo” and “Crab-Walk” fall short in memorability, as they don't have unique features in contrast to other tracks like “Dad Sneeze” which is instantly unforgettable, and the luscious Rainbow Runways type melodies of "Amsuleo" and "La Vita È.." Nevertheless, Hullabalo0 is carving a new path in psybass, which is automatically distinct from most other artists, and it stems from a trained hepcat approach which has been bolstered through years of practice, and humanizingly wacky humour.

You can scoop Hullabalo0's Towers here.

FOLLOW Hullabal0o:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

Ovoid - Abstraction EP

(Artist: An original painting by Bild & Elaine Alonzo, digitally rinsed by Bild)

The Abstraction EP from Washington native Ovoid is an omnitempo journey through surrealistic sound presented by Elliptic Audio Research, the cutting edge psychedelic imprint from Seattle, WA. Coming on the heels of the artist’s debut album Life, from May of this year, the Abstraction EP showcases at first Ovoid’s riveting uptempo offering, then dives into the psychedelic downtempo noire that is his signature.

The first two tracks combine the cerebral indulgence of neuro glitch-hop sound with the danceability and driving rhythm of drum and bass. “Drimb” begins on the inside of a computer interface, beeping a buzzing around a rich bass heartbeat. Tension builds and releases into a rapid groove punctuated with countless sonic details. The percussion is unique, with a muted kick and no traditional snare to speak of. Within these DnB tunes, Ovoid uses traditional percussion samples not as the basis of a beat, but as fills at the end of a measure, adding an acoustic touch to a thoroughly electric and synthesized soundscape. The title track featuring Amnea dives straight into the action, revisiting the computer interface for further data entry. The amount of varied, unique and varnished sonic details - screeches here, saw waves there, color everywhere - is truly impressive, creating an involved take on DnB. 

"Weasel" sounds just as good as one would imagine a bass music tune called "Weasel" could sound; even better, in fact. A jazzy lead melody is borne out over a mid-tempo groove by a flute. After a brief and quiet visit to the computer interface, the track descends into a groove with the melody taking the lead, this time sung by a crunchy synthesizer instead of a flute, though the woodwind makes a reprise to converse with a soaring electric guitar later. The flute also makes a return in the EP's final track, "Prince of Darkness" a spooky, waltzing tune that in tempo and tenor is far from where the EP began. Ovoid uses the flute, less as a thin, accompanying sample and more as a lead instrument, which refreshes the palate when taken with such a thoroughly electronic meal. 

Ovoid's offering is true to its name, a musical abstraction that allows one to depart momentarily from his or her usual atmosphere and into a world of colorful, half-conceptualized thoughts borne out in melody. The production prowess displayed by Ovoid will not be lost on the diligent listener, and the material is truly so unique that it can be revisited over and over again, and unlike the avocado which you just bought ripe yesterday, it will still be fresh. 

FOLLOW Ovoid:   Website   /   Facebook   /   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Instagram 

Resonant Language - Nautiloid EP

Colorado-based sonic surveyor Resonant Language delivers an aqueous treat through the Nautiloid EP; a meticulous dance of liquid textures and near-sentient synthesis. It was released through Aquatic Collective, an organization that brings together and highlights "artists channeling inspiration from the beauty of water." In cooperation with The Coral Reef Alliance, proceeds from the download sales of the EP will go towards the conservation of coral reefs world wide.

The root of Nautiloid is nautical, defined as "of or concerning sailors or navigation; maritime." The tambres and tones of the album further this association beyond mere wordplay, combining favored tropes of glitch and neuro with sporadic elements of fluidity and aqua-like textures. The percussion choice and programming is top notch, with a particular flair for musical turnarounds and sequence breaks. Each facet of each track has been dialed in for maximum clarity, and hones in on the aural associations humans have created over generations with our most precious and necessary resource: Water.

FOLLOW Resonant Language:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

Neurons Vol. 1: Keota - Wook Flu [Single]

By playing big billings and releasing a consistent stream of singles, KEOTA has remained steady on our radar throughout 2017, and he's elevating again today with "Wook Flu", the ninth track off Neurons Vol. 1, the superb compilation from Elemental Minded Promotions' (EMP). 

KEOTA a.k.a. Tom Brennan is the most recent addition to the EMP family. Though he's never had more than a "wook cold" himself, his effort on Neurons Vol. 1 is undoubtedly sick. KEOTA usually cuts and samples vocals to dramatic and often humorous effect. The choppy vocals in "Wook Flu" serve as another sonic element, instruments in themselves that bounce off a heavily broken beat, dizzying the listener. The synthesizer play is ill. Moist and fine cut synths are nothing new for KEOTA, who has been seriously producing for four years. The synthesis on "Wook Flu", however, is particularly filthy. Tom tell us it's the first tune he's released employing a new FM8 synthesizer. 

Northeastern heads will not want to miss KEOTA performing this Thursday, November 30th at the Middle East Downstairs in Boston with a stacked lineup featuring Jade Cicada, Kll Smth, Smigonaut, and Secret Recipe presented by Rezinate. Speaking of Rezinate, the Boston-based production company released a deep mix from KEOTA just yesterday, which you can listen to here.

The entirety of Neurons Vol. 1 is almost out, but stay chooned. We'll highlight one more choice cut from the compilation this Wednesday (full track list below).

1. Pluto Era - Nautilus
2. tsimba & Smigonaut - Headspace
3. Maxfield - Little Death In The Morning Sun
4. Scatz - Illgamesh
5. iX - Desert Form
6. Jizzy Fra - Sensi Star Dub
7. Face Plant - French Press
8. Phydra - Particle Board
9. Keota - Wook Flu
10. DeeZ - Juice ft. Frequency Fodder
11. Zoo Logic - Void

Follow KEOTA:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp   /   Instagram 

KEOTA a.k.a. Tom Brennan is the most recent addition to the EMP family. Though he's never had more than a "wook cold" himself, his effort on Neurons Vol. 1 is undoubtedly sick. KEOTA usually cuts and samples vocals to dramatic and often humorous effect. The choppy vocals in "Wook Flu" serve as another sonic element, instruments in themselves that bounce off a heavily broken beat, dizzying the listener. The synthesizer play is ill. Moist and fine cut synths are nothing new for KEOTA, who has been seriously producing for four years. The synthesis on "Wook Flu", however, is particularly filthy. Tom tell us it's the first tune he's released employing a new FM8 synthesizer. 

Northeastern heads will not want to miss KEOTA performing this Thursday, November 30th at the Middle East Downstairs in Boston with a stacked lineup featuring Jade Cicada, Kll Smth, Smigonaut, and Secret Recipe presented by Rezinate. Speaking of Rezinate, the Boston-based production company released a deep mix from KEOTA just yesterday, which you can listen to here.

The entirety of Neurons Vol. 1 is almost out, but stay chooned. We'll highlight one more choice cut from the compilation this Wednesday (full track list below).

1. Pluto Era - Nautilus
2. tsimba & Smigonaut - Headspace
3. Maxfield - Little Death In The Morning Sun
4. Scatz - Illgamesh
5. iX - Desert Form
6. Jizzy Fra - Sensi Star Dub
7. Face Plant - French Press
8. Phydra - Particle Board
9. Keota - Wook Flu
10. DeeZ - Juice ft. Frequency Fodder
11. Zoo Logic - Void

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