Lo-Fi Sundays 021 - Dweeb

Dweeb beats have all the smooth and sweet flavors one could obtain after a run to the local convenient store. Spindly piano loops and pocket drum patterns are his bread and butter. He delicately manipulates these essential lo-fi hip hop elements, and generates such a wide variety of material from their interaction. In between the kick thuds and snare pops, dusty tones stretch out and create a soft pillow for the mind to rest and vibe upon. 

This accomplished "beet farmer" splits his time between Minneapolis, Minnesota and Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. His clever nickname, evoking a yeoman harvesting his yield, accurately reflects the consistency in Dweeb's catalog. Down at the beat farmer's market, one can reliably assume whatever Dweeb is offering, it's a high-caliber bump. Some of his tunes are whimsical and fun, others are aloof and reflective, most are named after food. His wide body of work includes a raft of singles and collaborations, at least three beat tapes, and a juicy cut on Kush Gong Vinyl's recent Bits 2 compilation. Projects like his "Cream Soda" beat tape and his Neapolitan singles, or cuts like "Caramel" and "Tootsie" from his Treats tape are as indulgent as their names would imply. Dweeb also popped up on the STZZZY Youtube feed just this week with his frequent collaborator of comparable talents, too ugly. If you relish the relaxation that comes from a smooth, jazzy instrumental, stay chooned in to Dweeb the beet farmer. 

FOLLOW Dweeb:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Spotify   /   Facebook   /   Instagram   /   Twitter

Elements Lakewood Music & Arts Festival - Zoo Logic Warmup Mix

Presenting the second promo-mix in anticipation of Elements Lakewood this summer, Zoo Logic has provided a well-crafted smorgasbord of melodious interplay, evolving sound design, and excellent cuts between tracks. The mix features a majority of original Zoo Logic tracks alongside a few choice remixes and selectors, and is sure to whet a multitude of palettes with its varying stylistic directions.

Zoo Logic is the brain child of Austin Rogers and Jeff Blair, who have carved out a following for themselves through their intuitive combination of high-polished production and beefy bass tones. If you’re itching to catch them up close and personal, then make sure you find your way to Elements Lakewood in Pennsylvania this summer. The get-down is scheduled for May 25-27, and features a host of like-minded producers and DJs ready to serve up something extra hot for Memorial Day weekend.

FOLLOW Zoo Logic:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Spotify

FOLLOW Elements Music & Arts Festival:   Elements Lakewood   /   Elements NYC   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 020 - Elijah Nang

Elijah Nang is a storyteller. With a brush of boom-bap he depicts landscapes and narrates travels, mostly across Japan’s countryside and through its teeming cities. Nang loves anime and maintains an obsessive enthusiasm for the Land of the Rising Sun that shines with brilliance in his beats. Others before him have spliced Western hip-hop with Eastern anime, most notably Nujabes, to whom Nang pays tribute with multiple songs including “Yuki Pt.II 降雪” and “Sunburst 太陽”. Nang picked up where the others left off, and continues to elevate the Eastern beats aesthetic to transcendent heights. 

Nang’s sonic journeys correspond to his actual travels. He communicates his experiences through songs like “Shibuya Lights 渋谷” in which rippling percussion and piano samples create a glistening night skyline, or “Kyoto Evening [To Be Continued]” in which Koto samples and a jostling low-pass filter depict a city’s bustling but reserved nightlife. The Koto is a traditional Japanese string instrument and its appears across Nang’s body of work, including a delightfully subtle introduction at the end of “Bonsai 盆栽”. Sampling this native instrument is one way by which Nang evokes the East, similar to hand drums conjuring images of the Indian subcontinent, or certain orchestral melodies evoking the Balkans. 

A worldly fellow, Nang hails from London, has Nigerian heritage, attended high-school in Missouri (if Facebook can be trusted), and psychologically occupies Japan. He's been producing since 2006. He’s made music for rappers and used to rap himself, but now he's all about the instrumentals. This decade plus of experience in the breaks is reflected in the consistently high quality of his production. Nothing Nang produces is substandard. His beats could be construed as overly formulaic, as certain patterns are repeated across his catalog. The formula’s ingredients, however, are so delicious and fulfilling. Anyway, it’s this very repetition that can hypnotize a listener, allowing him or her to sink so deeply into the grooves.

Nang’s most recent release, Lost in Japan II, was released in January of 2018 and is available for download on the artist’s Bandcamp. Singles from this enchanting LP dropped months ahead of its release, including the cathartic “Haru” which was included on Chillhop Music’s 2017 Spring Essentials compilation. Past releases include Lost in Japan, Travel EP, and the Imagination EP from three years ago in which the foundation of Nang’s current sound can be heard. We sincerely look forward to more music from this prolific producer, when perhaps he will be lost in Cambodia, or Korea, or elsewhere. Until then, beats for days are available on Nang’s Soundcloud. We've lined up 20 favorites for this lazy lo-fi Sunday.

FOLLOW Elijah Nang:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook   /   Tumblr

Afterdub - Mad Zach [Profile]

Mad Zach is one of the most interesting personages in contemporary electronic music. He is one of the world’s foremost experts in controllerism, which is the practice of using software controllers (MIDI, Open Sound Control, joystick) to create and perform music. He’s been finger drumming for almost a decade and his skills are masterclass. Mad Zach’s music is pure innovation, so much so that Aphex Twin rinsed one of his tunes live last year. Mad Zach essentially embodies the concept of the electronic musician, and his ocean of knowledge about production is channeled with ferocity into one-of-a-kind dynamic live performances. 

Mad Zach came up in the Bay Area electronic music scene, and his sound is rooted in hip-hop and West Coast bass. He’s collaborated with fellow Bay Area native G Jones so many times that the two are virtual partners in crime. As trap, dubstep, and future bass have evolved globally in the past five to ten years, those sounds have entered the Mad Zach laboratory where they’ve been reconfigured. His sound eludes classification, but in a phrase it's a hybrid of hip-hop, dubstep and trap. However the influences interacting in his music are more numerous than the buttons on his midi-pads. His most recent release, “The Visitor”, demonstrates how chimeric Mad Zach music has become. Having moved to Berlin, Germany a few years back, his sound has assumed a bit of the darkness so ubiquitous in that city’s techno scene. That’s not to say Mad Zach was peaches and cream to begin with; his work has always involved a bit of eyes down business. 

Many were first introduced to Mad Zach in 2015 through the Ableton Push video, where Zach skills what was then the new Ableton Push controller as only he can. This, or any of the countless videos on his Youtube channel, illustrate the performance style that Mad Zach brings to his live sets. “When I perform, I’m typically rocking a couple midi fighters and a twister for mixing and effects,” Zach told Ariel Hawk of Smoothie Tunes in a 2015 interview. A Mad Zach performance is as live as live gets in electronic music. It’s freeform, groovy, and supremely dynamic. Zach’s music is not beholden to any semblance of the build-drop format. It’s instead a mercurial, evolving groove highlighted by anticlimax and subtle interplay between provocative note arrangements, and subdued but dazzling soundscape. 

On March 8 Mad Zach will roll into Brooklyn, New York laden with gear and keen on expanding and potentially blowing minds at Brooklyn Bazaar. Billed as an Afterdubevening and presented by Good Looks Collective and Sermon, the show includes support from the steady-handed audio surgeon SubDocta and the DMV-area dub deviant ChoppyOppy. Catching a Mad Zach set is an opportunity not to be overlooked. The performer was originally part of the recent G Jones & EPROM tour, but he had to drop off and ended up playing only a couple dates. The soundman's return to the road is thus all the more exciting. 

Familiarize yourself with Mad Zach music on any platform, scoop tickets to his Afterdub performance, and gird your loins. 

FOLLOW Mad Zach:   Official   /   Soundcloud  /   Bandcamp   /   Spotify   /   Youtube   /   Facebook   /   Twitter

Lo-Fi Sundays 019 - Kuranes

Europe is a consistent hub for lo-fi music. The next stop on the global map of producers takes us to Italy and the beat-server Kuranes. His compositions scatter in many musical directions, but always maintain the familiar thematic timbre of low-fidelity production. “MΔRS” is an expedition through extraplanetary synthesis and persistent, complimentary percussion. “~” is a classic hip-hop progression, with detuned piano lines waning in the background to hold the mood. “Ex oblivione” takes on a jazzy flair, gracefully developing around cascading melodies and disembodied hymns. “lord of sleep” creeps its way from start to finish with melancholy, dissonant chords and scales, riding a constant headnod that bounces on thick, muffled snares.

Only having popped up in the last 2 years, Kuranes has released an impressive amount of music. He has nine official releases to his name between ep’s, albums, and beattapes not to mention singles, his latest a collaboration with saiko. His most recent work, “Ukiyo”, was pressed onto  30 limited vinyl records alongside the standard digital distribution. Standard logic dictates that a close eye should be kept on such a weaver of rhythms. His talents are fresh and finely tuned, so there's sure to be even tastier beats to come in the near future.

FOLLOW Kuranes:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

Lo-Fi Sundays 018 - Wisdom

Instrumental hip-hop a not a style of music which draws listeners with its technical virtuosity. Yes, producers and highly cultivated fans can and do appreciate the technical aspects of a tune; the cleanliness of the sample chop, the compression of the kick drum, the dynamic of the note relationships, or the deft use of white noise. But the main attraction of instrumentals is the vibe they create and the feeling they evoke. Even the most base musical elements can offer a profound listening experience once they’ve been transfigured through a tasteful arrangement by the beatmaker. 

Instrumental hip-hop offers more space for this transfiguration than most musical styles. There sometimes appears to be a tacit challenge for producers; “do the most with the least”. What great rapture or simple relaxation can you provoke with your small handful of musical elements? In this context, the depth and color of the feeling provoked by a beat determines how valuable that beat becomes for a listener. 

WISDOM beats stone you. The face flushes and a tingle rinses down the spine. Cool and familiar, ripples of energy move out through the arms to the fingertips, raising goosebumps as they go. Undiluted calm envelopes the mind. A single note initiates a rush of clarity and throws the listener into a meditative state. WISDOM entertains and keeps the head moving. But plunge under the sublime surface vibe and the technical skill to the great beneath; the sound, a vibe, a sum greater than its parts, an understanding transmuted through syncopated drums and melody.

Exposure hasn’t fallen heavily yet on WISDOM aka Alec who resides somewhere in the Lone Star State. His work has been featured on a thorough compilation from San Francisco beats and lyrics label Fuzzoscope, and a tape from the steadfast lo-fi curators of Bandcamp, lofi.hiphop. His only at-length drop to date is “DINGE”, a 30-minute tape released on February 7, 2018, the unofficial world beats day. Before it appeared there were only a few short beats available from WISDOM on the Cloud, but quantity is not significant before quality. It may not come for a minute, but stay chooned for the next drop from this wise beatmaker whose momentum builds with each kick and snare. 

FOLLOW WISDOM:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Spotify   /   Twitter   /   Instagram   /   Facebook

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

DeeZ - Strange Matter

Forces exist that we cannot see. “Strange" matter, for example, is a strain of matter made of quarks, and thought to occur at extremely high temperatures in the core of neutron stars. Within this “liquid” substance the familiar structure of matter is disrupted. 

The composition space of Andy Widdecomb aka DeeZ is rumored to produce extremely high temperatures, and today strange matter is flowing from that space in the form of an extended-play bass music release. The four-track Strange Matter EP represents the more experimental side of DeeZ music, complete with 'delic vibes and a taste of live instrumentation. This of course doesn’t preclude the presence of DeeZ’s characteristic curdling sound design. Rather, Strange Matter finds the Boston-based producer covering new ground by couching that aggressive sound design in subdued downtempo atmospheres.

The off-kilter “Hootenanny” has a unique drum arrangement that sidelines the traditional kick-snare go-to. Resonant, thumping tom drums parlay with a set of snaps, bells and other high-end percussive pattering to create a rich tribal stomp. Strange matter enters the fray in the form of a bass synthesizer with great girth and dimension, engulfing the listener as it drops into and out of the mix. The complex cut “Tangent” lets 808 drum chops and vague vocal samples echo through open space beneath a whirling low-frequency oscillator (LFO). The listener is warned that such a combination could be “hazardous to the average”, but persevere and you will be rewarded with a barrage of samurai sword sound design. While it strikes hard, this impressive synth display does not consume, but sinks into, the mellow and closefisted vibe of the song.

“Mullen’s Bog” featuring Smigonaut offers the most meditative moment on Strange Matter, “meditative” being an adjective we could scarcely conceive using to describe DeeZ music until now. The melody is metronomic, and the notes reverberate against the outer edges of the stereo spread, surrounding the listener in a breathable atmosphere. Glitches that splatter like running water or chirp like birds give the soundscape a life-like character. Subtle sub-bass wafts across this atmosphere, playing the background for a squelchy synthesizer that is abrupt but not overwhelming. Plucked guitar strings appear from the ether. These are Smigonaut’s surprising contribution to the track, multi-instrumentalist that he is. The guitar's melody is delicate, but at its melodic climax DeeZ thrusts it forward with prominence into his otherwise aqueous mix. It’s a powerful moment, and reminiscent of Lux & Indivisible Inc., a group that offers early examples of the enchanting sonic spaces created when glitch and guitar overlap. 

The wide but widely unknown world of physics sparked Andy's imagination as he produced this new set of tunes. “The idea of these obscure areas of physics that we don't really understand is inspiring for me,” he says. “There's this unknown layer to existence that we have yet to uncover.” Similarly there are layers of the electronic music spectrum yet to be uncovered. Fortunately, DeeZ and other daring scientific minds can continue to lead us, and themselves, into the unknown. Stay chooned. 

FOLLOW DeeZ:   Bandcamp  /  Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Instagram

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

Lo-Fi Sundays 017 - KarmawiN

Rise, shine, and rub the sleep out of your eyes because the multi-lateral conductor for this Sunday's musical overtures demands a fresh spring in each step today. Standing tall in his home of Lyon, France, KarmawiN has been steadily releasing an ever-growing catalog of top-notch lo-fi beats and other hip-hop treats. Sometimes vibrant, sometimes melancholy, and always with an attitude, his tracks tackle a multitude of sub-genres, tempos, moods, and instrumentation. 

"Like a Ninja" creeps its way from start to finish following a harmonic minor scale that brings out the Samurai Champloo in all of us. Gated reverb on the snares keeps the upper registers of the frequency spectrum bright, with just enough space in between to let the hi-hats and sparing brass samples breath and flourish. Choice vinyl cuts surrounding samples referring to a Ninja's duties certainly help to keep the mental picture in focus. "Yōkai" follows the far eastern motif, utilizing samples distributed by fellow beatsmith Soul Maker. "Diggaz" fleshes out a familiar jazzy flair, with harmonious piano samples cutting and crossing one another underneath the canopy of brass flutterings and staple hip-hop vocal cuts. 

E1K, a recently formed beat-tape distribution label based out of Germany, put out KarmawiN's first official tape release, Noir, back in January. The beat-tape features 11 masterly crafted tracks that bring out a plethora of hues and tones that are so vital to lo-fi specifically, and hip-hop in general. Alongside the digital release, a physical tape is available for purchase by those who prefer to have a hands-on medium with which to collect their favorite music. If all of this tickles your fancy, then sit tight for some new music assuredly on the horizon from this young upstart.

FOLLOW KarmawiN:   Souncloud   

Check out "Noir" here:   Bandcamp 

Seppa - Thick Pits EP

So far February has seen a plethora of producers, both artisan and hobbyist, release a treasure trove of EP's and LP's in an effort to start off 2018 with their best work yet. Naturally, our slimy gastropod friends over at Slug Wife have been busy stirring up anticipation for new music and a US tour from across the pond, and Seppa is spearheading their dive into 2018 with the neck-breaking EP Thick Pits.

Gaining considerable rapport with the western hemisphere's electronic music community in the last few years, Seppa, who formerly produced under the moniker Duskky, is a card-carrying member of a new generation of broken beat producers who are simultaneously redefining soundscapes and raising the bar for fidelity in bass music. Together alongside production powerhouse Kursa, the duo operates the Slug Wife label, a creative smorgasbord of unique and eclectic producers that specialize in all things low-frequency. 2017 saw the birth, inception, and rapid propagation of the label, and the community response has been massive through and through, with fans of both the duo and the label at large eagerly awaiting the day when Slug Wife squirms and wiggles its way into US bookings.

 Thick Pits is a headfirst plunge into a visceral torrent of low-end blitzkrieg and deranged instrument sample play. Each track is a closed system of unique synthesis textures, extreme compression, sub-oscillator movement, and left field musical stylings. 

"Thick Pits" opens the EP with a playful, trickling melody that is quickly crushed under the weight of high-octane bass lines. High-hat shuffles and popping kick drums carry the beat in and out of instrumental interplay that is eventually and deliberately overpowered by saw-toothed synthesizers that explode from speaker cones like a punch from Bruce Lee.

"Mostly" begins with a jazzy brass line that morphs at the 26-second mark into a descending scale, harmonized with just the right counter tones to keep the track as bright as it is spooky. As it progresses, plucky sub bass is introduced to start holding down the low end, and is in constant musical dialog with the same maddening melody being spoken by a revolving door of far-out tonalities.

"Represent" is perhaps the most melody-driven track on the EP. The lead line floats around a full octave while occasionally dropping down in scale, bringing the listener straight down the aural rabbit hole. Vocal cuts come in and out focus, highlighting the wispy bass tones underneath the mix that carry the weight of the track. 

"Sh-t Slinger" follows the motif of the first track, beginning with a fluttery melody warping in and out of the mix through filter sweeps and a dash of reverb. Once the 20-second mark is hit, any semblance of this vivacious opening is overpowered by full force baritone synthesis, with each note marching to the back and forth beat of the kick and snare, demonstrating a rhythmic juggle that keeps this track stuck in the front of the mind long after it has finished.

With the release of this EP, and the announcement of an upcoming Slug Wife US takeover, it can be surmised that Seppa will be making landfall on our shores just in time to rinse these tunes through and through. Stay tuned for more goodies fast incoming from the UK's resident mollusks at the top of the food chain.

FOLLOW Seppa :   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp 

FOLLOW Slug Wife:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp   /   Twitter 

Lo-Fi Sundays 016 - Lunchbag

What could be more unassuming than a lunch bag; brown, paper, one size, mom wrote your name on it. But what’s this? Inside is an unexpected cornucopia of flavor, treats of all colors from a fat Italian sandwich and fresh fruits to candies and a bag of your favorite chips. This is the experience of discovering lunchbag, an adept producer based in Stuttgart, Germany. 

There’s a broad range of lo-fi flavors in the producer’s lexicon, from straightforward Wu-Tang head-nod re-fixes, to 1970s jazz cut ups. “2chordhosen”  showcases lunchbag’s ability to tease out a vibe from minimal musical material. It’s built on two simple chords and spiced with some delightful ivory doodling, but still carries a great emotional weight. “c h e s s b o x i n” and “Figaro” among others demonstrate the producer’s fondness for classic American hip-hop, and his ability to remodel it with refreshed essence. “2face” and “column” seem to spin a raw lo-fi jazz thread, a creative counterbalance to the traditional hip-hop tunes. His tracks have been picked up by the Berlin and London-based Complex Channel Records and Estugarda, a hip-hop collective from lunchbag’s hometown of Stuttgart. The latter's ambitious compilation "Lava" also features a lunchbag cut called "Crossing Fingers". 

“Apertif” is a recent drop, and one of two lunchbag tapes available on Soundcloud. An aperitif is an alcoholic drink taken before a meal to stimulate the appetite. This tape typifies lunchbag’s laid-back style, and at times highlights the producer's aptitude with a synthesizer, as does an older tune of his called "Burn the Plastic". This tape will certainly whet one's appetite for more of lunchbag's beats. They aren’t exceptionally thick, compressed, or trashy. They’re not overly distorted or dark with that attractive lo-fi loneliness, but they strike the nerves just right. There’s great familiarity with the boom bap, that bedrock tool of the hip-hop trade, and little reluctance to dabble in jazz samples and reap the melodious profit. With this subtle blend of jazz and hip-hop that’s not too hot and not too cold, it’s easy to kick back and relax with lunchbag beats. 

FOLLOW lunchbag:   Soundcloud   

Lo-Fi Sundays 015 - Senoy

Senoy stuck out to us while listening to the Homegrown compilation released on Friday by Inner Ocean Records and STZZZY. Based out of Berlin, Germany, he is the curator of a modest catalog that pushes in a range of stylistic directions. A multifaceted producer and composer, he worked closely with the artist Parra for Cuva to craft the album Darwis, a melody-driven collection of instrumental electronica. His first solo album, Shine, was released through Inner Oceans Records in September of 2017, and falls more in line with the lo-fi aural aesthetic.

Shine is a vivacious journey through the various affectionate moods of lo-fi music, dipping its fingers in hip-hop and ambient tones and arrangements. Comprised of a large amount of original instrumentation and a light pinch of synthesis, the album has an ebb and flow that bares the musics' direction with crystal-clear fluidity. 

سغىيْ is a particularly wild track, with a heavy synthesizer presence and many of the staple trappings of more electronic-focused music. Warped and distorted string samples drone from start to finish, occasionally becoming drowned out by the slight wobble of deranged melodies and glitchy brass lines.

K36. F L Y is entirely in line with traditional lo-fi hip-hop music, bringing into the headspace images of pollen falling onto suburban streets in the early spring. The kick is pushed to the center of the mix with strong, hard-lined compression, and fills the low-end of the frequency spectrum with a rhythmic thud. Various key chops are blended effortlessly into re-pitched vocal samples that seem to respond in kind to the piano's siren call.

All of his available music can be found throughout his own soundcloud, and his album is available for purchase through the Inner Ocean Records bandcamp. Throw a few dollars in his direction to support the project, and you'll be instantly satisfied with the fidelity of the results.

FOLLOW Senoy:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Facebook

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

Lo-Fi Sundays 014 - Folridomi

Floridomi is a consummate professional when it comes to the beats. Based in the home of hip-hop, the New York City producer's reverence for beats - their past, present and future - is abundantly clear. He releases work on Dust Era  and has participated in their “Selects” series, where the critical Las Vegas lo-fi label taps producers to curate some of their favorite selects. Domi’s contribution from January, 2016 included cuts from Madlib and J Dilla among dozens of others. Our floridomi selects highlight the producer’s diverse capabilities, from jazz and boom bap to the pure lo-fi grain and the slightly psychedelic. 

His Flowers tape showcases many styles, punctuated by braggadocio vocal samples and chuckling radio skits. There’s “Alpinia” which flips a Brazilian samba into a head-nodding boom-bap beat, “Etlingera” which weaves sultry piano samples through open space, and “Constantia” with rustic Spanish guitar samples. His ability to walk tall through different styles finds floridomi constantly collaborating. Included here is one cut with flavors, one with wūf, and an absolutely spellbinding beat with the magician borealism called “Pachinko” that was reworked by Danish producer iamalex on his track “Together”. 

“Rich palace” delivers an expected but healthy dosage of synth bass. “Spliff Politix” is a delightful, bouncing boom-bap ode to the cypher that takes us into the producer’s oddities tape. This hilarious and engaging tape highlights “the weirder side of my beats” according to domi. Tracks on this tape get so low-key and left-field that they’ll find you sinking into your couch with your head in the clouds. According to the producer there’s a “spiritual successor” to this tape in the works, so stay chooned for that. 

The low-key vibe keeps riding with “smoke signals” and “risky business” which offer supreme examples of the sauntering basslines that are a hallmark of floridomi’s sound. 

A number of his albums are available for purchase on Bandcamp or streaming on Spotify. Beats continue to flow regularly from his Soundcloud. The caliber of their production only continues to rise, and the attention to detail never slackens. If you enjoy beats, dig deep into floridomi. 

FOLLOW floridomi:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp   /   Twitter   /   Spotify

Lo-Fi Sundays 013 - Hoogway

A veritable part of the allure of the lo-fi community is the relative anonymity of a vast plethora of its producers and constituents, and this motif holds true with regards to hoogway. Based out of Brussels, Belgium, the one-man beat cypher leaves little more than a paper trail comprised of just nine melancholy compositions. Sometimes, it is necessary to dive into the background of an artist to provide a certain clarity and context to their work; in this situation, it is the work that provides context and clarity to the artist.

A common trope amongst producers stemming from all sub genres of hip-hop is the "chopped sample", with its ragged edges and off kilter transients. Eschewing this technique, hoogway instead opts to allow the original arrangement of his samples to shine through the mix. Perhaps it comes in the form of "morning coffee", a melodious and luminous piece that lets the beat fall back more than a few times to let the piano sing without constraint, bringing your attention away from the rhythm, and focusing on the note relationships that give so much life to articulate music. "the jazz party" takes on a vibe of dimly lit bars and social clubs, with a casual sway back and forth, bouncing around fluttering chords and off-kilter snares. Bringing a far-eastern atmosphere into the mix, "ascending" feels like a nod of the head towards the multitude of Asian producers who have mingled their cultural scales and modes with the western hip-hop rhythm.

The last uploaded track from hoogway came around 4 months ago, and it is unclear if the project will continue in the future; if anything is certain, it is that these musical artifacts take on a life of their own, and any future releases are bound to be just as captivating.

FOLLOW hoogway:    Soundcloud   /   Instagram

Wax Future & ZONE Drums [Profile]

As electronic music continues to flourish in the new millennium in the U.S., a momentous resurgence finds more and more artists presenting their music accompanied by live instrumentation.

Acts like the Emancipator Ensemble (pictured) have carved out new space for instruments in electronic music. Ensemble drummer Colby Buckler is a major influence for Aaron Harel, who now performs with Wax Future.

Sure, the universe of acts encompassed by the “Jamtronica” label has arguably always been holding down the intersection of instrumental electronica. Then there’s those artists who were just ahead of their time (see Infected Mushroom, Younger Brother, Bloody Beetroots). But what we’re seeing today is different. Jamtronica is born from the world of rock and roll. The performers who embody this new trend are born from the world of electronica, writing and performing music that is electronic first. If instrumental music makes an appearance in the form of jazz, blues, rock, swing or otherwise, it’s secondary and deferential to the electronic song structure. From this starting point, then, artists are now reaching back into the world of instrumentation and American roots music for inspiration.

It’s hard to put a timeframe on it, but the rebirth of this method of performance in American electronic music has taken place, arguably, within the last five to ten years. In 2013, Pretty Lights released the Grammy-nominated A Color Map of the Sun, recorded with a massive potpourri of instrumental base material. Not long afterward, the Pretty Lights Analog Future Band was born. Gramatik began performing with a blues guitar player. Griz had just released Mad Liberation and was earning a reputation for his performances with saxophone. Emancipator started touring with his Ensemble. 

For audiences, this live instrumentation was not attractive because it was novel or hype. The music just sounded great with instruments. When mixed and tuned in properly, the delivery became more powerful. Instruments began to enhance and elevate the sound. Fans from other realms found they could relate to this new electronica. Old head audiences began to realize they love the way the music swings with a drummer or a horn section or a string instrument. Performers began to innovate and improvise and all of the sudden the music was partially instrumental, but still electronic in style. 

In recent years, the style has exploded, as have the possibilities. New faces are stepping into the spotlight today who began as instrumental electronic acts, as opposed to adopting the style as an enhancement. Such faces include Wax Future, a duo from Philadelphia whose name hints at their modus operandi: to blend the old with the new. With Keith Wadsworth on guitar and Connor Hansel as the production powerhouse, Wax Future has released two more EPs and a treasure chest of singles, collaborations, and remixes since their debut in 2015. They’ve hit festivals across the country, aligned themselves with the Pretty Lights Music (PLM) crew, and pressed their music to vinyl for the first time. In the summer of 2017, the group took another step towards synthesizing electronic music with traditional American genres by integrating drummer and fellow Philadelphian Aaron Harel aka ZONE Drums into their live performances.

A drummer since the age of eight, Harel has quite a resume in his own right. He’s performed with 5AM, Brightside, CloZee, and members of the PLM crew. In a past life he owned a snare drum company with a patent-pending internal acoustic enhancement system for snares, and his drums were utilized by Lotus, Rebelution, Soja, Thievery Corporation, Wilco, Zoogma and more. He held down a two-man electronic group called Mr. Sampson, and came to know the Wax Future guys through several collaborative “Wax Sampson” performances in Philly. Harel envisions electronic music in his future, and when Wax Future drops their next EP, every song will feature live drums.  

For seven years Aaron ran a company which enhanced the internal acoustics of snare drums. After he began working for a full-scale drum company named SJC, he decided it was not the path he wanted to go down.

But how does an electronic act like Wax Future actually incorporate a drummer? What sort of challenges arise? How much elbow grease is required, and where is it applied? How is a group rewarded for taking such a risk with its performance?

“When I began playing with electronic artists I had to re-learn how to play drums in many ways,” Aaron says. Electronic music is often driven by emphatic kicks and snares, and producers are not anxious to replace these elements with live drums, “reasonably so,” says Aaron. “I was a little stubborn at first, but quickly began to appreciate the challenge of providing producers with what they wanted from a drummer as opposed to what I wanted to play. So when playing live and on record I have to focus on what I'm doing with my hi-hats, cymbals, side snare, and fills. Most of what I add as a live drummer are the subtleties and details that come from finessing these elements.”

“You can really get a great relationship between electronic drums and a drum kit,” says Connor. Until Aaron’s introduction to the group, Connor programmed all of Wax Future’s drums himself. “The electronic drums provide a consistency and a weight to the drum mix and ensure that the kick and snare hit nice and hard. When timed and blended well, live drums and programmed drums can give you the best of both worlds.” Timing is everything. Connor’s drums are tempo synched, so Aaron has to play along to a click track so that he’s not sliding even one split-second out of time. In a rock band’s performance, the drummer is the click track. 

Depending on what Connor has programmed, certain songs have just a kick, others a snare, and some have both when Wax Future performs. Building his live drumming into these layers is a unique challenge for Aaron, especially when it’s time to transition from one song to the next. Transitioning tunes is a skill every electronic act must obtain, but with two drum tracks rolling it’s not like beat matching and crossfading. “Speeding up is usually something I can pick up on, slowing down, on the other hand, is damn hard,” says Aaron. “The best way that we have found is just to practice a ton. It feels like nothing else in the world when a transition comes and I hit the downbeat into the next track just perfectly. I feel like a million bucks.” The audience probably feels like two million.

(From left to right) Aaron, Connor and Keith at Camp Bisco 2017 where Wax Future debuted with a live drummer (Photo: Wook of Wall Street).

“Having live drums alongside us has me jonesing to crack these songs open even more onstage,” says Keith Wadsworth, the group’s candid guitarist. He recalls the moment he realized the potential for live instrumentation in electronic music. “I made shitty Garageband tracks and borrowed my buddy Kevin’s Apogee jam interface and played guitar over them. Boy were they terrible but they were a proof of concept.” Wax Future is that concept borne out. Keith is a fan of acts who push the envelope with live instrumentation, groups like Sunsquabi and Pretty Lights Live. “I admire those who take risks with their craft,” he says. “If you’re trying new things as a group of people leaning on each other’s musicality, I am all about it.” 

He speaks to the most important aspect of instrumental electronic music. You must lean on, depend on, synch with and trust your fellow performers. When the music is coming from three or four individuals as opposed to one, everyone has to interlock, and in this regard, it’s not always rainbows and sunshine. “Spontaneity and attempting new things requires us to learn through doing, and sometimes messing up,” Connor says. “I have to be okay with things not being perfect.” 

But there’s a tradeoff. While a group gives up the ability to be perfect, it gains the ability to generate that one-of-a-kind intangible magic - felt by performers and audiences alike - when musicians spontaneously synchronize with each other and drive home the sound. “I love music that is created in the moment,” says Connor, “so I am learning to embrace human error and grow from it.”

After almost a year of “open-ended” traveling in the Far East, Aaron returned home last Spring because he was “fiending” to play music again. “A couple weeks later” the three performers were tearing up The Office stage at Camp Bisco. “I feel at home on stage”, he says. “I want to push the boundaries of drumming and electronic music specifically. Its a relatively new field and there is so much room for innovation and creation as it develops.” Where one generation of performers has set the pace for instrumental electronic music, another will determine where the sound travels next. We anticipate substantial innovation from Wax Future going forward, particularly this Friday, January 19th as the group headlines Sauce Sessions 002 at Sunnyvale in Brooklyn, NY presented by the Saucy Monster. 

The undercard for this session boasts multiple instrumentalists. DMV don Choppy Oppy frequently performs live with a guitarist and brings a trumpet of his own into play. Philly native The Business is all about that live bassline business. Rust artist Tygris from Western New Jersey will blend his tracks and turntableism with “the oldest instrument” aka the human voice in the form of five-borough lyricist Rasp 5. It’s shaping up to be an inventive evening with great potential for spontaneous musical combustion. 

They say there's nothing new under the sun; that it's not what you do but how it's done. Who knows if this expression is valid, but words don't become expressions for no good reason. The name "Wax Future" invokes a paradox - that the past may be the future. If so, by developing a sound in which instruments are fundamental, and adding an airtight and ambitious percussionist to that mix, this group from Philadelphia at the very least has itself a head start. 

FOLLOW Wax Future:   Soundcloud   /   Facebook   /   Bandcamp   /   Spotify   /   Instagram

Lo-Fi Sundays 012 - bastrd

Nine of ten top-shelf hip-hop tracks start with undeniably dope drums, and ten of ten tracks from the prodigious producer bastrd have just that. Bastrd lays biblical levels of compression onto his drums. Each kick sounds like it might pop open your earphone, and the hats sting like bees. Unpredictable, the drums stop, start and stutter and exemplify that slightly-off sound that has always been foundational in beat music and lo-fi hip-hop. Permeated by an improvisational jazz ethos as well, bastrd beats are inventive, unorthodox and simply enchanting. 

The movement of many of the tracks is manic and difficult to pin down. In some cases the drum pattern is more jazz than hip-hop. In others, “90% off” for example, the drum pattern hardly resembles anything familiar. The cymbal sampling here is particularly busy and well done, filling the mix with rich resonating rides and crashes. This freeform approach to drums distinguishes bastrd from so many producers who - not to their discredit - are content to rock with the more traditional boom-bap. 

Songs shift direction and spin in circles like “wawa” or the mystical jazz-infused cut “why remember". It’s not your average head nod music. Nonetheless, in a given moment it can twist your neck, as on the mini-mix “sick” from New Year’s Day, or the cut “Milo”. This one comes from bastrd’s stunning release from October, 2017; An Anthology of 16th Century Azerbaijani Classical Works by Fuzûlî. Only three of the 20 tracks on this absolutely mesmerizing effort are included in today’s playlist, so visit bastrd’s bandcamp (linked below) for the full monty. 

The producer ranked onto lofi.hiphop’s latest compilation, and his most recent drop is a jaunty and mildly psychedelic collaboration titled “2047 type beat” with the Oklahoman elegy off that producer’s forthcoming tape. Stay chooned to bastrd’s channels for more extraordinary knocks, and come back to our LoFi Sundays column next weekend as we continue to spotlight our favorite contemporary beatmakers. 

FOLLOW bastrd:   Soundcloud   /   Bandcamp

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