Cloudchord Taps Into Charismatic Instrumentation In Reverence

Over the course of his lifetime and career, Derek VanScoten has traversed a multitude of genres, hybrid sounds, and production styles. Perhaps best known for his uplifting, vivacious guitar melodies and careful arrangements, he's spent the last five years channeling those sumptuous vibes through his CloudChord project. Though his music has always kept one solid foot in the world of conventional instrumentation and songwriting, he's tapped into the lifeblood organic production in Reverence, putting the spotlight on his sheer musicianship and compositional scope.

VanScoten's catalog traditionally features choice blends of synthesis, guitars, flutes, brass, and a bevy of other instrumental and digital combinations. All of it carries the distinct sonic profile of his musical musings; clean, pure tones, elaborative compositions, and a toaster-warm mix and master. Reverence maintains this formula, but subtly departs from the sound palette of previous albums like Koi Pond and Diamonds through intense focus on the guitar and its classic, charismatic character. 

Stripping back additive layers and eclectic sound design, the result is a pocketed collection of smooth, interloping songs that come directly from the center of VanScoten's musicality. Be it the jubilant phrasing of "Cherish", the interwoven harmonies of "A Hui Hou", or the legato meanderings of "Brighton Falls", the stapled trappings and styles of Cloudchord's music take on bold characters through frugal, solid textures. Tracks like "Doran and Newell" and "Lofi Bach" ebb into territories marked by more intense synthesis and digital timbres, but retain the oxygenated character of the album's instrumental focus. Individually, each track is a font of compositional twists and turns, and in unison, they create an album that feels as narrative as it is lightweight.

After several decades of musical escapades, Derek VanScoten's aural toolkit feels as sharp as ever. Without so much as a dulled edge, he's maintained an output and a focus on his craft that is particularly impressive by any metric, and Reverence is certainly no exception. It seems that no matter what tangential sonic territory the Cloudchord project touches, the results are universally potent, and while we're certain to be enjoying this album for months to come, we're already keeping our eyes peeled on the near horizon for VanScoten's next aural adventure.

FOLLOW Cloudchord: SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook

Echo Map Unveils Debut EP Through Upscale

Brandishing a potent control over groove theory, composition, and textural synthesis, Echo Map's style branches out across the spectrum; with a range encompassing everything from tech-house to neurofunk, the solo brainchild of Moritz Breit pulses with the lifeblood of a lifelong songwriter and instrumentalist. Originally one half of the production duo Synergy Sound, Breit's foray into glitched-out electronic music more than 7 years ago marks the transition point out of a lifetime of classical and jazz-infused roots. That musical theory bedrock pushed the scope of Synergy Sound into genre-blending territories, and continues to do so under the Echo Map moniker. Officially stepping into his new musical skin, Breit has paired up with the boutique electronic label Upscale to unveil the self-titled Echo Map debut EP, redefining and reinvigorating his personal musical output.

As the sea of electronic genres continues to overlap and develop into new, novel formats, the production value and compositional strength of the music in question seems to increase almost exponentially. In the case of Echo Map, the combination of foley audio, bold synthesis, crafty arrangements, and an impressive rhythmic command sums to a powerful sonic narrative. The Echo Map EP unfolds across four divergent tracks that traverse the boundaries of Breit's style, showcasing his undeniable production chops and musical fluidity.

"Wilted" opens the album with groovadelic harmonies, syncopated rhythms, and a blanket of sub weight. Full bodied chords burst through the stereo space, giving gravity to each tangential scale and riff splashing alongside them. Twisted cuts of foley and processed downbeats dance around one another with ample grace and surprising force, packing a thorough wallop when channeled through the proper speaker system. It's funk reimagined, utilizing dynamic tones and modern engineering principles to craft an especially lush palette.

The steady beat synchronicity of "Sunrise" makes it the most pronounced track on the release; while the salient textures and melodies keep it tethered to the EP's core sound, it's tempo pushes the song into vivacious territories. The pulsing low end gives extra bounce to an already buoyant track, and that buoyancy is further underscored by it's audacious rhythmic shuffle. It's a dancefloor escapade that pushes the spatial boundaries of dance-centric music, putting Breit's sonic affluence on full display.

In the wake of Synergy Sound's dissolution, Echo Map dives even deeper into that eccentric musical attitude. Pairing up with Upscale could hardly be more appropriate, as their own finger remains indefinitely on the pulse of modern, dynamic, and organic electronic music. With this first release seeing the light of day, we're keeping our eyes firmly planted on Echo Map's future explorations, and we highly recommend that you do the same.

FOLLOW Echo Map: SoundCloud / Facebook

VALE Releases Result's Eclectic Bone Bender EP

VALE and Result have teamed up yet again; only four months removed from ‘Manticore,’ their initial collaborative neuro drum and bass EP, Result is already back around, loaded to the gills with more cutting-edge concepts and executions. VALE has always tapped so seamlessly into the heart of neuro sound design; they have consistently injected the underground airways with trend setting records since their inception. This new release, Bone Bender, takes listeners deeper into the creative explorations of Result’s musical hemisphere, with a particular focus on brain greasing grooves that push the envelope within multiple contemporary drum and bass sub-genres.

Leading with “Buzzer Beater”, the record starts off with off-the-walls high energy tune carrying a large dose of funk embedded in its groove. The lead synth does great work in the front half of the tune, possessing a distinct tear-out feel, and providing a clever degree of pretense for the crunchy, bass-laden breakdown. The forward aggression in “Buzzer Beater” is juxtaposed by airy atmosphere in “Spasm”; a dark energy roller that offers a fantastic take on drum and bass through the lenses of minimalism. The snare is thick, rich, and teeming with texture, exacerbating each downbeat around a surging bass line . Result effectively uses negative space in the groove to create color throughout the rest of the stereo space, creating a dynamic track that slips in and out of powerful pocketed phrases.

The title track features a drowsy retro synth lead amidst a dark atmosphere. As the arrangement shifts into high gear, it gives way to speaker-busting frequencies. Between phrases, the tune traverses alterations in the cadence as well as different patches on the lead synth, keeping the texture palette fresh from start to finish. “Bone Bender” is entirely reflective of the vibe found across the record, with shredded timbres and fierce sub weight blasting through each layer of sound of structure.

What we have heard thus far from Result and VALE is two installments of top-notch experimental drum and bass. We’re heavily inclined to believe that this relationship has far to go before it reaches its zenith, and if the current trend is any indication, there’s plenty more to come in the near future.

FOLLOW Result: Soundcloud / Facebook

FOLLOW VALE: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Facebook

Base2 Cracks The Seal on Lateral

base2 has gone down a variety of audio rabbit holes throughout the last 8 years; from audio engineering, music production, and sound design, to audio production and design for film, television, and video games, his portfolio could hardly be more accredited. There’s a certain mark of intense focus that has always surrounded his musical output, and that focus has rubbed off positively everywhere it’s been channeled on stage. After several years of performances across the American touring and festival circuit, base2 has the eyes and ears of his seniors and contemporaries across the spectrum of electronic music. Following a smashing album debut in New Orleans’ Saenger Theatre back in January, he’s given Colony Productions the green light to crack the tightly welded seal on his first full length LP, Lateral.

Given the veritable years put into the production refinement of Lateral, the degree of polish, fidelity, and composition across the record permeate the feeling of an artist deep in their prime. Compositionally, there’s no question about how long some of these melodies have been marinating, stirring, and gradually evolving, often eschewing more amicable note relationships for high tension pairings juxtaposed with sweeping resolutions. base2’s vision is somewhere between an electronic seance and a synthesizer being ripped apart at the center of a singularity, and that duality is felt within each song and throughout the breadth of the album.

The album’s opening track, “Baphomet”, is as eerie as the name suggests, with the distance between melody and din closing in to create a deliberately ignominious atmosphere. Bent, fractured audio artifacts cross over one another like frayed wires, with the occasional burst of signal ringing out into the stereo space. Just as the composition takes on the form of a sonic deluge, subtle harmonies balance out brackish synthesis gradually taming the unruly textures that make “Baphomet” such an undulant expedition.

“Aphelion” is defined as the point orbit at which an object is the furthest from the sun. As the ultimate song of the record, that definition is translated through wide spatial relationships, where precision textures and subtle pulses of sound mingle in stereo depth. A sense of finality drips off of the occasional melodic stir, and the conclusion of the track mirrors the conclusion of Lateral; high tension giving way to smooth sonic interpolation.

With the relationship between music production and audio engineering growing more divergent by the day, base2 is at the center of an evolving definition of musicianship. Lateral is both a wide canvas of musical ideas and the refined product of a meticulous perfectionist. The nexus of art and science is a balancing act between these elements, and base2’s time-honed skill sets have paid off with the equilibrium found across Lateral.

FOLLOW base2: Webpage / Soundcloud / Facebook

Sinewave Collective Explores a New Narrative in Luft | Air

The synergy between aural and visual art is an immense history of accidental and deliberate collaborations; from the pioneering work of Walter Geirs, to the contemporary relationship between producer/DJs and visual producers, we're enamored with the ability to orchestrate sound, light, physical mediums, and kinesthetics into a synchronous, multi-sensory experience. Born out of the intent to reimagine and revolutionize audio-visual art, Sinewave Collective combines broad narratives and lucid A/V content into immersive, multifaceted projects. Their newest release, Luft | Air, is an outstanding dive into the realm of meticulously curated A/V experiences, ostensibly reinterpreting our relationship with electronic music and digital art media. 

Sinewave Collective’s debut project, Jord | Earth, is an ambitious exploration of narrative themes surrounding life, death, and the world around us. The massive release was created in collaboration with more than twenty audio and visual producers, including RefraQ, Eckle, Glass  Arrowhead, and Sinewave co-founders Pluvio and Ampro. The stunning design and intense development of the entire collection is the hallmark of Sinewave Collective’s ethos; digesting music not just as a temporal act of consumption, but as a full-service experience. That ethos resonates even louder in their sophomore project Luft | Air, flipping the idea of recursive, dance floor-friendly arrangements on their head, and moving far more than just hips and shoulders through rhythm and composition.

With swelling, orchestral percussion crashing around Alicia Kiah’s cascading violins, Aeos’ “Ascent” opens Luft | Air with bold charisma and gripping resolution. Subtle touches of synthesis and spatial effects compliment the resoundingly organic track, channeling a weighty regality with every refrain. It’s a powerful welcome to Sinewave’s invigorating conceptual journey, immediately showcasing the breadth of the album’s emotional pull.

Chalky’s contribution to the release, “Elevate”, is a sensual dive into jubilant chords and waves of ambient foley. Droning sub bass carries the melody like a cradle and a lullabye, with Kiah’s violin gently gliding across the center of the stereo space. Flitted, syncopated drum lines skip in and out of focus until the thumping cadence of the song dims into faded chimes and a last rush of white noise.

Evoke’s track, “Cascading”, finishes the journey of Luft | Air with a potent fusion of texture and vivacious groove. Precision low-end modulates phrase to phrase, warping in and out of the mix with magnetic velocity. The song’s dance-heavy rhythm is the most pronounced on the release, and feels representative of the evolution of songwriting present from track to track. Inverse to the collection’s opener, “Cascading” is a raw, aggressive final waltz across the meaty synthesis of contemporary bass music.

Sinewave Collective’s adherence to their forward thinking songwriting philosophy is now firmly accredited twice over, with Jord and Luft complimenting each other with a grace accomplished by few in the realm of multi-album narratives. The production standard across both the musical and visual territories exudes a professional quality and polish that only serves to further their reputation for high fidelity and striking originality. With a total of sixteen audio-visual journeys across both Jord and Luft, there’s plenty of content to get lost in while the collective once again locks themselves in the lab and misplaces the key, and we’re just as excited to see what the future holds for the Sinewave team.

FOLLOW Sinewave Collective: SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Youtube / Webpage

Emancipator Bridges The Gap Between Organic and Synthesized in Mountain of Memory

Amongst the most notable of veteran acts across the electronic music circuit, Emancipator consistently stands out from the pack. Fourteen years on, and 6 full length LPs later, their vision is as grandiose as their compositions, stretching across a vast swath of ideas, narratives, tempos, and atmospheres. Fully tapped into the sounds of tranquility, their latest release continues to fill out the Emancipator discography with silky cuts and orchestral arrangements, reminding us that impact isn't just relegated to sheer force; Mountain of Memory is an exploratory evolution of Emancipator's personal style and sound.

From Soon It Will Be Cold Enough, to Dusk to Dawn, to Baralku, the Emancipator experience has been marked by an ongoing journey across the cooler hues of musical emotivity. Each album has a distinct coloration to it's sonic design, and sifting through their catalog often feels closer to walking through a thematic art gallery; each piece follows an overarching scheme, but diverges in content and character. Mountain of Memory reimagines those sometimes disparate elements in tonally smooth synchronization. The line between organic and synthetic tambres blurs as the album rolls on, merging the varied stylistic directions of their music. 

Opening the album with a potent seance, "Alligator" hones in on the distinctly organic side to Emancipator's productions. Dusted percussion falls back on itself in a swayed arrangement, following choice interjections of flutes and vibrato guitar lines. As the composition evolves, the mounting layers of texture sum to a cascade of emotions, with rising and falling harmonies and violin riffs crossing over one another like a meticulous wreath. 

The album closer, "Himalaya", bridges the gap of Emancipator's conventional and unconventional tones. The bends and inflections of sub bass follow interspersed shots of violins and shuffling hi-hats. It's a primal sort of rhythm and melody, instinctively pulling the attention deeper and deeper to the center of the mix. "Himalaya" caps off Mountain of Memory like the frost-tipped peaks of its namesake mountain range, bringing a tonally smooth, effervescent finality to the LP.

As contemporary electronic music continues it's journey of maturity and development, Emancipator gives validity to the power and impression possible by combining electronic production and classic instrumentation. Their patented blend reaches far beyond cutting and slicing samples and taking advantage of happy accidents, with every subsequent release oozing top tier compositional craftsmanship. Without missing so much as a beat, Emancipator has upped their own ante with the unveiling of Mountain of Memory, and continues to provide fans new and old alike with long moments of reprieve in a world of perpetual motion.

FOLLOW Emancipator: SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Spotify

Lyndon Jarr Release The Dreamer through SmallPrint Recordings

Transmitting frequencies directly out of Hong Kong, the international, Aussie-born producer Lyndon Jarr has risen to global fanfare for his distinct system music and his label's world-wide talent curation. As the co-founder of Unchained Recordings and Unchained Asia, he's a direct player and taste-maker in bass music's expansion into the Far East, and his own catalog features a bevy of finely-tuned tracks that feel at home on any proper rig. His most recent release, The Dreamer, finds an apt home with SmallPrint Recordings, and showcases the ever evolving nuance of his musical craftsmanship.

Jarr's discography is a journey through some of electronic music's most intrepid formats, from ambient to jungle, to 140 and back again. There's few settings that won't agree with his productions, and The Dreamer is no different; between precision percussion, supple rhythms, and aqueous song writing, the EP exudes a potent smoothness that's hard to pull away from. Somewhere between the nexus of soul, bass, and classic dance-floor music, Jarr strikes a careful equilibrium of aural elements and directions. That equilibrium is fully pronounced throughout The Dreamer, with each track ebbing gently and deliberately into new territories.

“Abeyance” opens the EP with a velvet dive into a four on the floor headspace. The melody is a subtle jaunt across the back of the mix, fleshed out with vibrant pads and sparse, delayed tones. There’s a feeling of weightlessness within the composition, accented by the rounded pulses of bass that fill out each measure. It’s a remarkably succinct package, prioritizing pure vibe over excessive impact. That same priority makes itself abundantly clear in the namesake track, “Dreamer”. There’s no substitute for spot-on drum processing, and the percussion throughout the song quite literally takes flight with your headspace in tow. Each pulse of texture and low end swims in and out of the stereo space like highway landmarks passed by in the dark of night. The track breaks into a monologue for dreamers, by dreamers: “They say dreaming’s dead, that no one does it anymore. It’s not dead, it’s just that it’s been forgotten.” All in a moment, it feels as though the songwriting is more than just it’s blend of synthesis and rhythm; Jarr’s musical strength is the personification of his music, and “Dreamer” personifies his personal, emotional output all the same.

SmallPrint’s tenure in the ongoing history of system music has been marked by their stellar list of collaborative artists and releases, and the addition of Lyndon Jarr continues to substantially raise the value of their reputable watermark. The scope and design of Jarr’s music lends itself to SmallPrint’s space-lounge veneer, and that relationship is nothing less than synergistic. The sooner you experience The Dreamer, the sooner you can experience that synergy for yourself.

FOLLOW Lyndon Jarr: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify

FOLLOW SmallPrint Recordings: Soundcloud / Bandcamp

Supporting Artists Through the Covid Crisis

Taking care of our neighbors is our number one priority at The Rust, especially given the current global shutdown. With public events and gatherings cancelled for the time being, we have been working hard to keep bringing new opportunities to artists, and find ways to continue bringing quality content to our community. 

Join us online on Friday, April 3rd, for the first installment of the Featherbed Sessions, a new live stream series featuring curated audiovisual experiences enjoyable from the most comfortable spot in your home. Session 1 will feature some Rust favorites including MALAKAI, Thought Process, and Pheel. Follow The Rust Music on Twitch to keep up with all of our live streams!

With increased time at home, now is also a great time to hone in on new and existing skills! We recently launched a new program, The Rust Education Network, intended to bring together up and coming producers and musicians with seasoned pros to share their experience and knowledge. We are happy to offer private 1-on-1 lessons in music production, performance, and technology taught by some of our talented community members and labelmates. 

~ Check it all out below! ~

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The Featherbed Sessions: Volume I

Music provided by: Keota, Pathwey, MALAKAI, Thought Process, and Pheel
With visuals from: The Void, Mandalorium, Reino, O Z W V L D, and Psybosonic

Facebook Event
The Rust Music on Twitch.tv 

This live streaming event is a benefit for artists in need of assitenace during the COVID19 crisis. All donations will be distributed among the performers.

Please consider donating here.

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While many of the artists in our community depend on public gatherings for much of their income, there are a number of other ways you can help support them through this difficult period. 

Buy Music & Merch! 
This is the obvious one, but buying music and merch are two of the most direct ways to support the artists you love and keep them able to do what they do.

Hire Artists! 
Many of the artists we work with have a plethora of skills to offer ranging from music education to mastering to graphic design. 

Listen, Follow, Share!
Finally, stream your favorite artists, follow them on social media and streaming platforms, share their music with friends!

~You can find all of our in-house artists' info below~

ZONE Drums

Services Offered: Remote recording sessions & drum features, drum sample packs, remote drum lessons

Drum Sample Packs - Everything Else

Contact: aaronharel@gmail.com OR message through any socials "ZONE Drums"

5AM

Services Offered: Music Releases, sample packs, production lessons, graphic design services

Bandcamp - Merch/Downloads - Graphic Design - Lessons

Contact: sam@5ammusic.com

Tygris

Services Offered: Ableton live lessons (see website for topics), mixing & mastering, commissioned Beats

SoundCloud | Bandcamp

Contact: zplocic@gmail.com or message on socials “@tygrisbass”

Malakai

Services Offered: Ableton Live Lessons (see website for topics), Mastering, Mixing (for Film, Music, Podcast), Commissioned Beats

Education - Mastering

Contact: malakai@therustmusic.net or message on socials “MALAKAI”

Foxtail

Services Offered: Commissions for movies/tv/video games.

Bandcamp - Webpage

Contact: mgmt@foxtailmusic.com or message on socials “Foxtail”

Wessanders

Services Offered: Mixing, beat production, audio editing, and vocal top lining, will also bake you bread after the pandemic is over

Soundcloud | Bandcamp

Contact: Wessandersmusic@gmail.com

Smigonaut

Services Offered: Composition, music production, mixing, mastering, lessons (music production, mixing, composition, sound design)

SoundCloud - Bandcamp

Contact/Webpage - www.smigonaut.com

Maxfield

Services Offered: Composition, post-production audio editing, guitar lessons, music theory lessons, acoustic drum programming.

SoundCloud - Bandcamp

Contact: jakemaxfieldmusic@gmail.com

lusid

Services Offered: Music Releases, Cinematic Works, Live Performance Configuration, LuSiD TV, Mixing Mastering

Soundcloud - Bandcamp - Twitch - Spotify

Face Plant

Services Offered: Bofa

SoundCloud - Bandcamp

Shapesift

Services Offered: Music Releases, Production Lessons

Bandcamp - SoundCloud

Contact: shapesiftsound@gmail.com

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We're proud to begin offering private music production lessons with some of our talented community members through The Rust Education Network.

Available mentors include:

MALAKAI
5AM
Smigonaut
Ovoid
Tygris

To set up a private lesson, please visit The Rust Education Network portal, or shoot us an email!

Seppa Traverses Stereo Space in Split

When Slug Wife enters the conversation, it's usually in reference to their razor-edged sound design and audible fierceness; the experimental label is home to a number of top flight producers and engineers working synergistically to craft bass music designed for pure bludgeoning. Amidst the seemingly endless output of monstrous tracks and high octane EPs, there's remarkable compositional work being done under the surface. Seppa, one of the labels co-founders, and the Executive-in-Chief of Gastropodia Prime, has a particular strength for branching off of the archetypical tropes involved with brutish bass music. His latest release, Split, tops off the rest of his catalog with the most shapeshifting, amorphous album out of Slug Wife yet.

Seppa is far from a stranger to malleable composition or narrative releases. From Homunculus to Stress, his stapled solo material builds on constantly evolving phrasing, arrangement, note relationships, and distorted textures. Pairing well with his original music, Bright Spots, a collaborative LP with Chalky, puts his instrumental and music theory skills on full display, accentuating the allure of an already highly sought-after producer. Split feels like a matured combination of his original musings and collaborative longform compositions, showcasing an evolution in songwriting that can be harder to find once an artist settles into their role and fame.

From the jump, Split brings emotional turbulence to the forefront, with "Elk" setting the tone for a subtle masquerade of low end frequencies and tonal suggestions. There's a tension that feels all at once dark, eary, and especially curious. Immediately jettisoning into "OLVO", shuffled hi-hats and reverberant pulses of melody echo across the song's stereo space, with warped, undulating bass lines shredding in and out of the mix. It's the kind of one-two punch that pierces listeners with excitement from the very start of the journey, guiding the attention into each new track.

Bringing the album to a vicious full circle, the title track "Split" is a boisterous monster of complexity and pure rhythm. Mottled breaks flex in and out of focus, bouncing off of raucous bass stabs. The arrangement is hairbrained madness meeting total sonic domination, pushing resampled synthesis to it's absolute musical maximum. The force of the track is a combination of it's exhilarating delivery and synaptic impact, and it's the pairing of these precise attributes that makes both the song and the album an undeniable step up in Seppa's ongoing musical journey.

Contemporary bass music production has evolved to encompass a massive swath of music real estate, and the number of interpretations and genre diasporas seems to multiply weekly. The constant, guiding focus of this musical evolution tends to be composition, and Seppa is firmly planted in the upper echelons of forward thinking songwriting and eclectic production. Each release has diversified his personal palette, and the unveiling of Split reinforces the Seppa project as an audio experiment with few parallels and fewer boundaries.

FOLLOW Seppa: SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook

Hudson Lee and Matt McWaters Release Sophomore Loftii Album

Upscale Recordings’ very own Hudson Lee has built a fortuitous reputation as a musical collaborator, covering a wide berth of divergent styles and potential partners. From fellow label-head Frequent to Vorso, Fallen Noise, and a host other producers and musicians alike, he’s built his catalog around a collection of like-minded individuals, and the products of these collaborations sprawls across the vast terrain of electronic music. His most recent partner in action, Matt McWaters, is a producer and multi-instrumentalist based out of Toronto, Canada. He’s amassed an impressive list of collaborators in his own right, featuring the venerable Ta-ku, Masego, Please Wait, and more. The combination of Lee and McWaters’ intertwined musicality comes in the form of the vivacious project Loftii, and their sophomore release, The End Is Pretty, reveals a whole auditory landscape designed for easy listeners and beat-heads alike.

The End Is Pretty channels a remarkably smooth assortment of textures and modes into a twelve-track journey across moods and attitudes alike. The salient nature of the album is it’s primary strength; there are no harsh edges or massive transients crowding the stereo space, leaving an abundance of room for washy chords and blanketed harmonies. The distinctive lo-fi veneer is paired with particularly bright percussion, emphasizing the dynamic arrangement of each track. It’s difficult to discern where Lee ends and McWaters begins, as every present element fits into the wider musical puzzle with the precision and finesse touted by both artists. It’s an altogether powerful collection that showcases two minds in impressive unity.

“Any window in the world” frames the beginning of the album in a blissed-out, melodious collage of organic pads and sampled arpeggios resting on a bedrock of subtle bass and a pocketed break. It’s the kind of no frills, full service composition that tugs at the heart before it grabs at the mind; like a pebble plopping into calm water, the initial impact is just a catalyst for the wider vibratory experience around it. Sliding over to the albums finale, “The End is Pretty” is the sort of subtle goodbye that leaves behind sonic trails in the headspace. Perhaps the grooviest track on the album, it is also the most endearing of Loftii’s combined musical dynamic. With grace and liquidity, the accented chords strum along from start to finish, turning around at the pluck of every trill and triplet. At just the right moment of tension, that graceful entrance flourishes into a stereophonic chorus of supple textures and whimsical slices of soprano synthesis, bringing the album to a succinct, poignant close.

The growing number of collaborative projects amongst the world’s burgeoning and foremost electronic music producers is music to our ears, and it’s incredibly gratifying to hear the diversity in style and interpretation that comes along with these collaborations. Hudson Lee and Matt McWaters put the potential of these projects on full display, and The End Is Pretty showcases a time-honed precision in the mingling of vibe and composition. Whether you’re searching for impact, soul, or a smooth auditory experience, Loftii’s newest album is undeniably fertile ground.

FOLLOW Loftii: Bandcamp / SoundCloud

FOLLOW Hudson Lee: Bandcamp / Spotify / SoundCloud

FOLLOW Matt McWaters: Spotify / Soundcloud

K.L.O Sets A New Standard With 'Bout Time LP

It’s been four years since the release of Acid Scratch, K.L.O’s debut warchest of devious tracks. In the time since then, Kursa, Lone Drum, and Osmetic have all furthered their individual projects, and that legwork is the backbone of this deadly triumvirate. Rounding back together to unleash their sophomore album, K.L.O’s ‘Bout Time is a brutal lesson in hammerhead ferocity, and takes their catalog in it’s darkest direction yet.

Acid Scratch is an album marked primarily by it’s finesse; the intensity of the album is a direct product of each track’s intricate, exponential layering, as opposed to just sheer decibels. ‘Bout Time showcases a poignant evolution of those musical relationships, interloping dexterity and break-neck inertia throughout each of the album’s ten songs. The peaks and valleys of intensity manifest in a blend of pinpoint textures and meaty mudpies of synthesis, with interlocking vinyl cuts slicing through each arrangement like a surgical lancet. 

On the heavier end of the album’s spectrum, tracks like “Montana Dream Cake” and “Avante Parred” put sub frequencies and grating textures at the forefront, primed to lay waste to unsuspecting speaker cones. Bouncing bass weight off of downbeats and twisted breaks, these songs pay homage to the cutting-edge sound design that has helped push K.L.O to the front of the pack. On the opposing end of the album’s dynamic song choice, “Lamp Sandwich” and “‘Bout Time” take hip-hop into strange and deranged territories, balancing choice scratching and brickwalled, broken rhythms. There’s a groove and an attitude to these tunes that sets them apart from the rest, mutating hip-hop’s golden-era veneer into a fusion of liquid tones and virile swagger.

In an age where the idea of collaboration is steadily edging out the idea of competition in the realm of electronic music, there’s no shortage of combination acts and producer collectives. For the vast majority of them, K.L.O is an undeniable benchmark for impact, intensity, and pure style. Four years on, and they’re releases have become steadfast staples of bass music selectors across the circuit, placing K.L.O’s material and influence at the heart and center of like minded musicians and producers. With nowhere to climb but upward, they’ve added yet another rung to the ladder with the release of ‘Bout Time.

FOLLOW K.L.O: SoundCloud / Spotify / Facebook

Elucidate - Tune Balloon

Channeling vivacious vibes and pure production wizardry over the last three years and counting, Wisconsin-native Garth Winter has been gradually honing in his craft as a multi-faceted songwriter and producer through his Elucidate project. With releases featured across labels such as Digital Womp, Glitch Hop Community, and Wormhole Music Group, he’s far from a stranger to contemporary bass music, and his newest material, the Tune Balloon EP, is exactly what it’s title suggests; absolute tomfoolery with plenty of force and a professional polish. 

In a niche of fairly dark, sometimes emotionally rigid electronic music, it’s refreshing to hear how loose the tracks on Tune Balloon really are. The production and engineering quality are pointedly top notch, but the attitude is remarkably jovial, even curious at times. It’s hard to envision anything other than the throes of a fantastical circus while tuning in to the EP’s contents, and that’s perhaps the core strength of the two tracks; the finessed sound design and arrangement are really just vessels for the imagery.

“Tune Balloon” and “Blowin Smoke” both share voluptuous textures and prominent downbeats, but are distinct in their place within the EP’s carnie-inspired mental mosaic. “Tune Balloon” has the feel of data losing its place in the stream, only to find its way back after being slingshotted by spring-powered bass patches. The turn of every phrase maintains the track’s character, with each pulse of the low end feeling as muscle-bound as it is dynamic. Pairing together like cannabis and a Kevin Smith film, “Tune Balloon” is complimented by the unhinged composition of “Blowin Smoke”. One can’t help but follow along the intrepid journey of synthesis and percussion, and the sense of a deepening rabbit hole has rarely felt more lucid. Farther and farther down the hole, each sonic layer folds into the stereo space like knee-high boot laces, neatly tying together through their respective lanes. The whole musical dynamic begs the question of whether or not Elucidate has spent significant time under the spell of Barnum and Bailey’s Best Show on Earth. 

Electronic music is, at its best point, the same neural journey as all music before it, through digital articulation. The fast-paced, brain-scintillating nature of the evolution of sound design can be enough to mollify audiophiles searching for a quick, constant fix, but impressionable music almost always shares the central cornerstone that is potent composition. Elucidate spares no effort in following suite, tailoring the edges and innards of his songs until there’s an amenable balance of timbre and phrasing. If you’re looking for full service musical experience, Tune Balloon is sure to satiate any magnitude of craving.

FOLLOW Elucidate: SoundCloud / Facebook

The Rad Hatter Hits the Pocket in New Downtempo EP

Hailing from Nevada City, California, Joshua Nathan has recently begun an earnest dive into his musical project, The Rad Hatter. His sophomore release, Downtempo Dragon Princess, provides a lense into his developing craftsmanship, showcasing smooth arrangements, poignant sound design, and a careful, emotive depth.

Downtempo Dragon Princess takes flight with it’s buttery texture interpolation and stereo width, displaying The Rad Hatter’s aptitude for exploiting sonic pockets. The downbeat trio of tracks have a distinct flow to their order, and each composition feels like a piece to a larger trip-hop puzzle; it’s the kind of interloping song writing that sits best with a collection of similar tunes, and that relationship is what makes this EP a wholesale package. 

Across each song, core melody elements rest in the center of the stereo image, serving as the bedrock for airy percussion and audio artifacts that float along in sequential phrases. “Ho’oponopono” strikes a particularly reverberant chord, and the salient relationship between it’s muted arpeggios and panned, percussive cocoon fuse together in blissed-out harmony. As the track’s inner elements develop, so too does it’s emotional tug, all summing together in a succinct, sampled quote at the tail of the song: “Once you’ve met someone, you never really forget them. It just takes for your memories to return.”

With so few tracks released into the public sphere, The Rad Hatter’s initial offerings have been strikingly well-written and notably fidelitous. Downtempo Dragon Princess showcases a strong grasp for both production and evolution in songwriting, and begets the feeling that we’ve yet to hear Joshua’s full hand of cards. We’ll be keeping a close eye on The Rad Hatter across the rest of 2020, and highly encourage you to do the same.

FOLLOW The Rad Hatter: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Facebook

A Hundred Drums Unveils Debut Album Via Gravitas Recordings

Gabrielle Watson has been refining her craft as A Hundred Drums for nearly seven years to this day. Her debut album, a self-titled record released through Gravitas Recordings, offers a full clip of weighty tracks that will test the capabilities of any proper sound system. Each of the seven tunes (including two remixes) offer a tasteful vantage point of Gabrielle’s signature craft and provide heavy ammunition to all International Dubmen looking to fatten their space crates.

The first track functions as a bit of a palette softener. Smooth, rhythmic drums accompany chest-thumping bass melodies en route to a groove that shakes the earth—as represented by its title, “Shakti Sound”. The word ‘Shakti’ means ‘power’ in Sanskrit, and in Hindu tradition represents a divine-feminine, universally connecting force that cannot be seen, but can be felt. The tune features samples of a recording from group chanting exercises at the Shakti Sound Retreat, a women’s music production retreat that focuses on empowering women in the music industry through an intimate, spiritually-charged learning environment. The tune also gives a peek into Gabrielle’s diverse musical background, featuring dreamy flute samples performed and recorded by her own hand. It’s a choice track to lead with, and serves as a sturdy gateway to the more experimental compositions across the rest of the album..

Leon Switch’s remix of “Lord of Tings” deserves particular attention; the original is featured on AHD’s debut EP, “Audio Runes”, via Heavy Traffic Recordings in 2018. The tune’s new twist offers an equally dense peek at the darker side of A Hundred Drums’ vision, reverberating with a dark, minimal rhythm. The pocketed percussion and low end undulations create an ideal platform for Jayne Gray’s vocal work, forging a heavy-handed duet of voice and bass.

A Hundred Drums sails toward the year ahead on the ongoing momentum of a staunchly successful 2019. She was formally welcomed into the fold of the venerable Sub.mission label, and found herself rocking the stage at Infrasound, Sonic Bloom, Coachella, and The Black Box, to name just a few. The future is bright for Gabrielle and her A Hundred Drums project, and 2020 is sure to see a continuity in her musical evolution.. 

FOLLOW A Hundred Drums: SoundCloud / Bandcamp / Spotify

DUGLO Caps Off Synesthetic Trilogy with "Pop"

Brooklyn’s own DUGLO has a penchant for warm tones and hypnotic rhythms, and his latest trilogy of tracks showcases the creative momentum behind his musicality. The unveiling of “Pop” caps off the patient release cycle of three companion tracks, each meandering in their own jazzed up direction.

DUGLO’s music has consistently been a flourish of ethereal pads and warped soundscapes, but “Pop” and it’s sibling songs provide a particularly percussive look into his musical thought process. Laid back, extremely pocketed snares snap within watery reverb, filling the high end just to the brim. The chord progressions float and evolve within a sphere of movement, panning around the core elements of the track like a satellite in an oblong orbit. Airy vocals dot the far end of the song, bringing out the lightest phrases and ending on a succinct harmony. It’s the kind of music that elevates moods and stabilizes rooms, putting the listener in touch with the rhythm at hand.

Accompanying the release of the track is a psychedelic music video that completes a full circle of audio-visual immersion. Crafted by a visual producer under the name Rictor Lome, the video translates sound into hues and spacial distortion, turning “Pop” into a multi-media experience.

“Balloons” and “Fall” appeal in similar ways, playing off of choice lo-fi instrumental motifs, infused with a healthy dose of rhythmic fluidity. “Balloons” pushes the pace, while “Fall” takes its time walking through the composition. Together, they’re the perfect musical preamble to the grace and attitude of “Pop”, demonstrating the unravelling scope of DUGLO’s vision.

With just a year of releases under his belt, DUGLO is still in the process of carving out a space for his sound. It is as unconventional as it is enticing, and just the first few minutes grazing through his discography pave the way for a deep appreciation for his sonic experiments. Whatever the future holds for DUGLO, it will surely be filled with a flurry of textures and atmospheres.

FOLLOW DUGLO: Soundcloud / Bandcamp

Desert Dwellers Unveil New Remix Trilogy with Breath Reimagined Vol. 1

Amani Friend & Treavor Moontribe continue their march down a golden avenue of world dance culture built throughout the last thirty years, unveiling fourteen new remixes by their contemporaries in psybient music. The record, entitled Breath Reimagined Vol. 1, hosted by the Desert Trax record label, gives us at least one new spin on each of the ten tunes from the latest Desert Dwellers brainchild, ‘Breath.’ 

Breath Reimagined Vol. 1 builds on the foundation of the original album, with each artist stripping the music down to its core elements and splaying outward. The result is a compilation record that’s bound to pique the interest of any fan of psychedelic bass music. Such an impact is achieved via a multitude of stylistic offshoots, each expressed through colorful arrays of instrumental and vocal work from around the world, expounding Desert Dwellers’ passion for unification through dance. 

The remixes done by MantisMash and DRRTYWULVZ capture the essence of the original album through a smooth broken beat veneer. DRRTYWULVZ cultivates a refreshing take by building upon the eeriness of the original atmosphere in “Realms of Splendor”, as the familiar sounds of wind, thunder, rain drops, and chimes fill the headspace. MantisMash puts a beefy spin on the percussion in his remix of “One That Shows the Way”, carrying the composition through precise phrasing and clever engineering. Both remixes peak through the use of absolutely maddening lead synths that express wobble factors so astronomical, they could even turn Hare Krishna into a certified bad boy.

With decades of experience and influence under their belts, it’s no small thing to be apart of the ongoing Desert Dwellers vision. The trust that Friend and Moontribe put into their selected collaborators paid off in full, with each track on the remix album diving deeper than the last. Breath Reimagined Vol. 1 begins a trilogy of remix albums curated by Desert Dwellers, and if the next two are anything like their predecessor, we’re certainly in for more scintillating, playa-inspired experiments.

FOLLOW Desert Dwellers: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook

Dancemyth and Labden Join Forces to Forge “DataMosh”

Michigan natives DanceMyth and Labden have two distinct styles and methodologies to their productions, but they've met squarely in the middle for an explosive collaboration. Brandishing Labden's low-end swagger and DanceMyth's tempered grit, these stalwart musicians from the Wolverine State weave their sounds into the aggressive, punked-out track “DataMosh”.

Straight forward rhythms are the cornerstone of “DataMosh”, driving the phrasing throughout the duration of the song. Hollowed-out downbeats accentuate the pumping, pulsing synthesis, channeling the kind of raw aggression found in contemporary metal and rock music. Aptly so, the bass synthesis takes on the texture and utility of a rhythm guitar, chugging away at each verse and refrain. Staggered stabs of melodies fold over sharp pads in succinct motions, constantly building on the industrial atmosphere and flair. Polishing it off with a wide stereo image and healthy amounts of sub-weight, the track is a standout example of the kind of power that comes from pushing raw textures through their paces.

Individually, DanceMyth and Labden are formidable, multifaceted producers who are carving out their own unique slices of bass music. Brought together into one laboratory, and the results speak for themselves. Given the potent results of this first experiment, we're hoping that “DataMosh” is the first of many more tengos between these two musicians.

FOLLOW Dancemyth: SoundCloud / Facebook / Bandcamp

FOLLOW Labden: SoundCloud / Facebook / Instagram

VCTRE Expands His Horizons in Palindrome LP

The last three years have seen VCTRE stake an audacious claim within the underground bass community. The vicious, punk veneer across his music has made him a fast rising star amongst his contemporaries, earning him prime slots across numerous festivals, showcases and concerts, as well as a rapidly growing, flamboyant fan base. He’s brought his production and engineering chops to new heights across the last year especially, culminating in the full-spectrum album Palindrome.

The earthy grit featured in VCTRE productions takes on new dimensions in Palindrome as he pushes his sound design chops towards wider horizons. The amalgam of styles and moods on the album is a testament to his evolving compositional perspective, with some of the most standout tracks in the collection also being the least imposing. While plenty of guttural distortion and massive stereo compression find a home in the latter half of the release, the first half features an abundance of downbeat, chilled-out tunes, fully equipped with VCTRE’s trademarked, speaker-blasting textures. It’s a noteworthy combination, given that so much of his catalog thus far has focused on the brawny end of bass music. 

Of particular note are the tracks “Human Eel” and “Morning Sky”; side by side, they best capture and display the depth of character featured across Palindrome. With its ungulant, viscous stabs and syncopated arrangement structure, every burst of low end in “Human Eel” responds to a bend in the frequency spectrum. What carries itself primarily as a gun slinging, half-time saunter quietly and impressively transforms into a skewed full time breakdown to close out the track. It’s the kind of composition that flexes the full potency of VCTRE’s patented aural aggression while simultaneously pushing his envelope beyond its traditional edge.

“Morning Sky” takes the attitude of Palindrome in an entirely unique direction, wielding a classic 4x4 beat accentuated by swelling pads and brooding atmospheres. It’s industrial and lucid, and the minimalist production allows for each aspect of the track to shine clearly through the mix. Sky Swift makes an appearance with her flangered, saturated vocals, adding a fresh breath of life into the veins of the song. Soft edges and acute harmonies put her at the center of the arrangement, giving the direct, austere dance floor tune a warm glow and an infectious bite.

2019 saw VCTRE rise with meteoric velocity, and the fanfair is well earned. He’s separated himself from the pack through intuitive, potent production skills and a knack for redeveloping his sound at every turn. He’s staked his claim onstage across the United States, blasting through the festival and touring circuits with few signs of an impending slowdown. As we enter 2020, the landscape of bass music is bound to change as it always has. Of the few constants we can guarantee, VCTRE’s continued dominance of his niche is certainly one of them.

FOLLOW VCTRE: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook

DRRTYWULVZ Channels Infectious Groove in Momentous LP

Brandishing psybient compositions, infectious synthesis, and streetwise rhythms, DRRTYWULVZ flexes genre boundaries and mental imagery in his latest album, Momentous. With a dedicated career stretching back seven years and running, Levi Witt has been gradually developing the DRRTYWULVZ project into a veritable force on and off the stage. The Austin, Texas-based producer has undergone a constant metamorphosis throughout his discography, with the last year seeing a solidification and maturation in his sonic palette and compositional chops.

Earlier this year, DRRTYWULVZ unveiled a collection of tunes titled Nest of the Falcon; crunchy, immersive, and voluptuous, the EP served as an initial foray into the polished, emulsive experience that Momentous conveys. When taking the first steps into this new album, the most immediate aspect is the concise, tightly trimmed mix and blend of frequencies. It’s aggressive without abrasion, and approachable without sacrificing its unique compositional characteristics. In line with it’s polish, Momentous is an album especially characterized by its sheer sub weight. In lieu of edgy mid-range textures and biting high end, the bass lines across the album are almost strictly a low-frequency buffet of jostling turnarounds and walking, talking verses. 

Of the stand-out tracks on Momentous, “Bullet Proof” channels the most hypnotic groove featured on the album. Again, that streetwise rhythmic attitude takes full control of the composition. Downbeats drag and drop across a skewed ensemble of knocking bass cuts and panned percussion. It packs a punch without over-saturating the mix, and like the rest of the album, each sound and tone is given priority within its own frequency space, with all parts summing to a clean, deliberate dive into particulate textures. 

For Witt and the DRRTYWULVZ project, 2019 has been characterized by exuberant performances across the country and a refinement of his musical acumen. In the sea of contemporary electronic music producers, he is accentuated by his compositional finesse and extremely choice sound design. Looking over the trove of music he’s put out into the world in just the last year, we’re incredibly excited to hear what he has in store for 2020 and beyond. 

FOLLOW DRRTYWULVZ: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook

Veteran Heavyweight Frequent Unravels Frequencies in Grass Rat [SINGLE]

Pushing modern sound design and drum and bass sensibilities to their logical extremes, the production heavyweight Frequent unravels the frequency spectrum in his single “Grass Rat”. Being both a longtime veteran of bass music evolution and the co-owner of Upscale Recordings, it should come as no surprise that the track is as brawny as it is erratic.

Living up to its name, “Grass Rat” features a bucked, broken quality to it’s synthesis. Granular textures and obtuse engineering place the most mottled and resampled tones at the front of the song, showcasing the legendary sound design chops that first put Frequent on the map. The track opens with a full time beat down, hurling the composition into a violent half-time streek. The rhythm is accented not just by massive downbeats and staccato percussion, but also by the cuts and warps within the bassline itself. It’s that lively mingling of instrumentation that makes “Grass Rat” a veritable journey through the darkest reaches of bass music.

Given his tenure as both a genre-bending producer and curator of similar productions, Frequent has an immutable understanding of bass music composition. Even in the midst of a heavily saturated market and sound, his tracks have a way of shining just that much brighter, lending credence to his credentials as a master of his craft. While we can’t be sure what 2020 will bring, we’re excited at the possibility of “Grass Rat” being just a taste of what’s to come.

FOLLOW Frequent: Soundcloud / Bandcamp / Spotify / Facebook