A Chat With Keith Wadsworth on His Paramount Record Adirondacks

By any metric, Keith Wadsworth is a jack-of-all-trades guitarist; his personally defined style chameleons between funk-rock fusion and neoclassicism, and his current body of collaborative Wax Future works showcase his songwriting and performance talents across several iterations of broken-beat electronic music. In many ways, his foray into electronic music has shaped his contemporary sound, but that’s just the most recent injection of influence. The long arc of his lifetime thus far has been a step-by-step march towards a cumulative display of musicianship. That display of musical immersion and education takes the form of his Adirondacks EP, released through his new solo moniker Wadsworth Music; With a completely distinct sonic profile from the Wax Future project, Wadsworth has refined his own definitive image, introducing the majority of his friends and fandom to his musical confluence for the first time.

Adirondacks is a guitar-driven record composed by a compositionally-driven guitarist, showcasing a stunning array of musical hues and instrumental finesse. “Climbing” opens the record with soft, major crescendos taking flight, contrasting wonderfully with the meandering minor note relationships in the closing track “Back at the Trailhead”. Sandwiched between the two subdued ballads are a trio of anthems that move the needle closer towards the Wadsworth musings we’ve grown so fond of; “Summit Nap” explores the power and the impact of harmony in notation, where “Dream Sequence A: Upload” and “Dream Sequence B: Error” place rhythmic syncopation and pure shred-head energy into the spotlight. It’s not just the complete package for appreciators of six-string prowess, but a stylistically unique and emotive collection for any discerning soundhead.

Having been so immediately drawn to the raw passion behind the record, we at The Rust felt compelled to reach out to Keith for a conversation about his new music, and the journey that led him here in the first place.

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The Rust: Let's start with the necessary and obvious topic: can you talk about your origins as a guitarist and a songwriter?

Wadsworth: I got my start as a rhythm guitar player for my dad at 8 years old, great gig, residency was in my living room. Made the jump to lead guitarist for the band around 9 years old after a gig in the guitar room of Sam Ash. Never looked back. My first compositions started around 2004 in a program called “Cakewalk”. I would take the drum sample tracks and write tunes around them. Bought a Dr. Rhythm drum machine and became enamored with drum programming. By 2006 I had written (a very poorly recorded) album of guitar music that I sold at my high school talent show for 5 dollars a pop, sold about a dozen. Out of high school played in a metal band, toured around the east coast a bunch. After that I bounced around in many projects, pop punk, singer songwriter, eventually meeting Connor and starting Wax around 2014.

The Rust: What are some of the stylistic influences you pulled from as you progressed as a musician?

Wadsworth: [I] started out following and emulating as my of my guitar idols as I could. Joe Satriani, Paul Gilbert, Steve Vai - I was a big Van Halen fan as well, and would always spend time attempting to master EVH’s solos and impeccable rhythm work. RIP to the absolute legend. As we dove deeper into Wax and started to play shows alongside cats I really looked up to I think I made a conscious decision to think about songwriting and the impact of the guitar in our songs. I think that helped my playing, kinda slowed down and serviced the song more. Obviously live I would still go off and have some fun though.

The Rust: The Wax Future project has been your collaborative brainchild for quite a while now, pocketing you into a powerful electro-soul-rock fusion; what was the preamble to exploring different motifs on this debut Wadsworth release?

Wadsworth: This solo release is kind of a full circle piece. I familiarized myself with recording and production in the beginning of my musical journey. With Wax it was like leveling up, you can’t be near Connor Hansell and not learn via osmosis or some shit. It’s real. So this record was a lot of revisiting where I was musically all those years ago with a broader grasp on production and creative tools.

The Rust: Can you dive into the songwriting process for this EP? Was it a conscious project, or a serendipitous assortment of tracks?

Wadsworth: I wrote the song summit nap first. It’s definitely an ode to my guitar hero roots, very droney ballad’y (those aren’t words I guess) But I didn’t really think I had a chance to create a small collection of music until I wrote Dream Sequence A. When that song came together I knew I had the nucleus of something. It was like a eureka moment. Very exciting. From there I kind of had an idea of where I wanted to the concept of the tunes to go. I enjoy creating a loose journey through collections of songs, it helps keep me focused.

The Rust: You've been keeping busy with an assortment of live looping gear and live production; Can you talk about your experience translating solo performances through technology?

Wadsworth: Speaking of eureka moments. Live looping is a giant prolonged eureka moment. Improvisation is that core of who I am as a musician, I have a hard time conjuring up as much joy as I do musically than from pulling concepts from the depths of my brain off the cuff. With live looping its just that non-stop. I want to establish a schedule of streams and just share. I miss the stage with my entire being, being able to look out into the crowd and share energy. The looping streams manufacture some of that energy. 

The Rust: As one of the foremost instrumentalists in our slice of music culture, you're given a fairly constant opportunity to collaborate on other live performances. Would you care to open up a bit about this dynamic? What are the major hurdles to surmount when sitting in, especially in the context of improvisation?

Wadsworth: As I said, improvisation is at the core of who I am as a musician. I’ve been really lucky to sit in with and collaborate with a fuck ton of artists I look up to. With some minimal prep, you can create this unique shared experience between you and an artist that’s able to be watched live, it's really special. Countless times I can remember just laughing on stage because something went perfectly and everyone on stage knows that we pulled it from the ether at that moment right there, it’s one of the downright best things about music.

Regarding hurdles or prep, there really isn’t hurdles, there are house rules for each artist. Some are particular, some are free form. Entering each artist's‘ house’ and learning their rules before a performance is part of the fun. When I sit in with Freddy Todd, he is such a guru with the onboard fx of the DJ mixer that he lets me kinda high fly through the tunes and mixes me in the moment, ie. Cutting my fader in the drop sections and adding delays in break sections. That collaboration is unique to our sit-ins and I’m not convinced Freddy isn’t an actual wizard sometimes after we play haha.

The Rust: With this first batch of Wadsworth tunes minted for release, where is your head with regards to future projects, both with Wax Future and as Wadsworth?

Wadsworth: I’m gonna let these tunes go, dive headfirst into the holiday season and then I would like for the Wadsworth stuff to maybe release a song a month through 2021. Wax is sitting on a GRIP of tunes, some really exciting stuff in the works over at that camp. I’m also just gonna drop it here, I made mention of one of my earliest projects being a metal band. Through quarantine, I’ve actually collaborated with my best friend Donovan remotely and we’ve started a metal project, hype to get the details of that off the ground. I didn’t expect to start two new projects during quarantine but this has all kind of progressed naturally.

The Rust: Can we expect to see some Wadsworth performances when stages become our lifeblood again?

Wadsworth: Most certainly, I want to pick these songs apart live and add some improvisational elements. I want to hit the stage with the live looping stuff too. Zone Drums and I were able to step out in a limited capacity but I want to grow that medium and share more.

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With this first solo release out of the gate, the path is wide open for Wadsworth to continue exploring the wide berth of his musical territory. In the time between now and the eventual return to traditional concerts, there's no question that he’ll be hard at work in the lab putting together a host of fresh material for the inevitable in-state debut of Wadsworth Music.

FOLLOW Wadsworth Music: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Facebook

Man From Sol Debuts New Ambient Glitch EP

The San Diego-based aural astronaut Man From Sol has been hard at work defining the next phase of his musical project, reaching toward the depths of his bag of audio hat tricks. The result is a cornucopia of digital syncopation and stuttered artifacts via the Automorph Totality EP.

Man From Sol has consistently delivered a circuit-bend-inspiried array of textures and spectrum-folding motifs, and his focus on interpolation and granular resampling reaches new heights in Automoprh Totality. It's ambient only in compositional nature, but is otherwise a full serving of spectral waveforms and stabs of mottled synthesis. Whereas the glitch in more contemporaneous electronic music serves a primarily rhythmic function, here it serves to paint mechanical hues across the frequency band, jostling and crashing against reverbent sound platters and cascading percussive runs. It's a top-tier forray into atypical songwriting and freeform rhythms, demonstrating this producer’s natural inclination for all things niche and novel in music.

Man From Sol's laser-edged focus on derivative, molten soundscapes and crystalized fidelity cannot be understated, and it’s made all the more accessible by his focus on the glitch.cool platform; operated in collaboration with a number of other like-minded creatives, glitch.cool functions as an educational and promotional platform for musicians and producers to access, understand, and participate in the creation and the exposition of any format of glitch music. While we patiently await the next spate of Man From Sol tunes, we encourage you to take a few minutes to browse the glitch.cool website and get familiar with a host of similar projects.

FOLLOW Man From Sol: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Spotify / Facebook

Zonra Opens Up about Stylistic Direction and A/V Stream Series

For the last six years, Jackson Hale has been pushing the boundaries of his musical acumen through the Zonra project; mingling precision production with gradually shifting compositional styles, he's kept his approach consistently fresh and above-par for the fidelity of his work. In line with his own burgeoning interests in multidimensional art, and with the shift towards digital streaming platforms across the last year, he's embarked on a stream series of curated A/V sets, mingling unreleased material, old favorites, potent reworks, and the first lens into the visual stratum of his creative endeavors.

The proficiency of the Zonra project is the boon of a lifetime of musical study and experimentation. Hale's choice of style, genre, and sound palatte have evolved several times across a distinct career, and the incoming release of his next collection, the Hypotheticals EP, showcases a further evolution in his production and songwriting processes. After the debut of his first A/V performance in October, he graciously agreed to entertain a series of interview questions for The Rust on his latest performance developments, his musical upbringing, and the novelty of sound.

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The Rust: The Zonra project has undergone a stylistic metamorphosis more than once at this point; what draws you towards each successive form your music takes?

Zonra: My approach with music production has always been to stay open to whatever direction interests me, and to explore it with patience. Ultimately, many of my stylistically-diverse projects will unfold together, and slowly, while new techniques are explored, learned, and shared between pieces. The propelling force behind my music is generally to find (it has always felt like more of a 'find' here than a 'create') an overall system of novel or crystallized ideas in sound that work together to create an experience that is larger than the sum of its parts, iterating through different versions or expressions of those ideas until some type of well-rounded arrangement appears. Recent audible experiments combined with influence from whatever I've been listening to at that time in my life tend to shape my tracks.

The Rust: Can you talk a bit about your musicianship and production background?

Zonra: I started with piano at a young age, and took up drums and percussion a little while after because I was bored with piano. I played drum set in various jazz bands through middle and high school, and always loved being part of the non-verbal communication that occurs between players' during solos. It's magic. I stumbled into electronic music production via Audiotool.com around age 15 where I learned the basics of synthesis, sequencing and sample editing — posting lots of tracks under the username Astrum. After several years, I found myself needing software that could handle larger projects and let me sketch more freely, and soon I really felt like I'd found a sound that was all my own- or at least a more specific focus within music production. As a kid I loved getting lost in certain songs, really losing myself in the mix and the cohesion of all the different instruments working together. The power of a clean mixdown is endlessly interesting to me — it's not necessarily the content of a song but rather the way it is presented that determines how it impacts. A degree in Recording Arts has helped me solidify my knowledge here. The creative powers of synthesis, sound design, and spatial audio have dictated the parameters for many of my projects — though to really get going on new ideas I have to forget about all that stuff and just have fun in my studio.

The Rust: How did you find yourself interested in performing A/V sets? Have you always had an inclination for visual art?

Zonra: I've always loved multi-media art and the idea of using different technological media to create unique, immersive experiences. I got my first camera this year and started recording videos of the world around me. I also got back into learning Max this year, and realized there was a way of using Max to connect my APC Mini to these videos, in effect creating my own VJ setup without having to buy any extra software. This gave me a brand new outlet for live creation during streams, as opposed to the (in my experience) detail-oriented, repetitive work of creating a song. After buying a green screen and building a PVC pipe stand for it for around $6, I was able to fully recreate the effect of performing on stage in front of a video wall, with the added bonus of being my own VJ. I had suddenly found a new dimension to play with — one that doesn't demand any editing sessions or prolonged contemplation of its presentation in order to be utilized and presented. Creative work is, at its heart, finding spaces where you can let yourself be free.

The Rust: Can you unpack some of the programming involved with crafting a smooth A/V performance? What's that experience like as an individual performer behind manning both helms?

Zonra: The first thing I needed to figure out was how involved I wanted to be with the visual aspect of the performance, and subsequently what the limitations of my current setup would allow. I'm continually using a process of trial and error to figure out what works for me and what works in the medium of live video streaming. My visual control setup uses a Max patch I created to connect my APC Mini to a playlist of video clips that I've recorded throughout the year and then running those through built-in visual data processing modules to add controllable effects, including pixelation, adjustable angled mirroring, and zoom depth, to create various kaleidoscopic effects. Having even a few different effects at my fingertips creates what feels like near-endless possibilities when connected to my video library. It's super fun to explore all these combinations of videos and music, constantly being surprised by the results that I'm given. Working with my own visual content is especially gratifying in that it lets me evolve and give new life to my music.

The Rust: We're now eight months beyond the initial surge of viral infections throughout the world, and closing in fast on the end of the year; what's your experience been like throughout the turmoil and tribulations?

Zonra: I have my health and I have employment which many can't say right now. Musicians are in a weird spot especially where the ultimate form of the art- live performance in a venue, connecting you with the audience into some kind of vibed-out hive-mind- is now a public health hazard. I know we all miss live music and its ability to connect us. I see this pandemic as having a catalytic effect on people: whatever energy you've been cultivating these past few years is amplified by the ever-present fact that activities we formerly took for granted now have sickness and death as potential side-effects- those who project love and healing into the world are reaffirmed in their nature and know the importance of what they do for others, while people with short fuses have even shorter fuses. My studio is more my safe haven than ever before. I'm just trying to stay positive and create the best music I can. I don't know if I would have expanded my work into visual art if not for the cancellation of all live events this year, so there's that.

The Rust: What's on the horizon for the Zonra project after the conclusion of the A/V stream series?

Zonra: I'm thinking I'll continue to explore the realms of live streaming and visual art in the context of my music. I feel like I've barely scratched the surface so far. I've got lots of music that needs further unfolding- the work never ends there.

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Coming in hot this evening is the second 90-minute installation of Zonra's A/V series, and it's sure to be bursting with sonic intrigue ahead of the release of his latest EP. We'd tell you to stay tuned into the gradual developments under the Zonra umbrella, but we get the feeling you're just as hyperaware as we are.

You can catch the stream tonight from 8-9:30pm PST on the Zonra Twitch channel.

FOLLOW Zonra: Bandcamp / Spotify / Soundcloud / Facebook

Slug Wife Gains Another Stellar Label Release With New Vellum EP

The clock ticks off another hour, and Slug Wife ticks off another superb featured release; Vellum’s Marvin EP typifies the furious sonic profile of half-time bass music, and couldn’t possibly be in better hands amongst Slug Wife’s pristine roster of artists. Over the last several years, Vellum productions have snuck their way into speakers across the North American touring circuit, making him a mainstay name in his slice of our musical hemisphere. His signature pressure-laden bass lines are amongst the forerunner textures that popularized contemporary, hyper-aggressive neuro music throughout the US, and the Marvin EP is just as brolic.

For Vellum, tempo is as malleable as texture, and his releases over his career have ranged from pure sonic experimentation, to high fidelity bass house, to brutal broken-beat music and beyond. The Marvin EP sits in the broken-beat pocket, pushing bass weight at terminal velocities for maximum impact. Tracks like “Style Wars” and “Marvin” feature his classic stuttered arrangement and snaggletoothed textures at the end of each bar, giving the underlying beats a swayed, jivey rhythm. “Zones” takes the Vellum style in lyrical direction, with the English MC Gravity laying down tightly-coordinated bars atop a neuro-hop sound platter, contrasting nicely with “Resurrector”, a gun-slinging deep dive into subterranean low-end. From top to bottom, the EP is a stellar take on razor-edged sound design and high energy electronic music, showcasing Vellum’s undeniable production flavor.

As the list of assumed pairings between the Slugs and their favorite artists grew slimmer and slimmer, it was only a matter of time before they snagged a proper Vellum release. With features across labels like Inspected, Gold Digger, and Maraki Records, Vellum’s tenure goes without question, and the value of his productions follow suite. As always, The Rust will be keeping our ears peeled on his future experiments, knowing full well that they’ll be just as righteous as always.

FOLLOW Vellum: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Spotify / Facebook

HUMMUCIDE Taps Into Hybridized Jazz on Self-titled EP

It's no secret to our readership that The Rust holds jazz in a universalist light: We consider it to be an “everyman's music”, and a kind of emotive experience that moves beyond physical and cultural boundaries. In the Te Aro district, the heart of musical expression in Wellington, New Zealand, one such group has spent their formative years across dives, venues, and busking blocks. The result is a conscious merging of contemporary rock and minimalist jazz elements into a warm, soulful, and digestible blend; HUMMUCIDE’s roots take their discipline from the compositional and rhythmic prowess of musicians like Aphex Twin and Yussef Kamaal, acknowledging the gradual merging of palattes and flavors in the realm of instrumental music, and simultaneously fleshing out their own organic vision of eclectic songwriting.

Their most recent release, the self-titled EP HUMMUCIDE, is the product of an entire post-adolescence spent reworking and refining a select group of tracks near and dear to the band’s members. Toby Leman, Ben Stewart, and Hugo Olsen-Smith began their group forray into the jazzosphere back in their highschool years, and met their fourth and final member, Lennox Grootjans, as they went on to pursue undergraduate programs in jazz school. After road testing and developing their most honed-in routines, the recorded EP is a stunning testament to their multi-displined learning, and to the spiritual jive that permeates jazz music. Be it the buttery, pocketed sensibilities of “Reacher”, or the lush waltz of chords and percussive shuffles in “8 Mullups”, HUMMUCIDE doesn't just have a knack for crafty riffs and touch-and-go harmonies; they have a clear understanding of the power of swing and syncopation.

The youthful fire of their early years, coupled with a sharpening of their skillsets through dilligent education and experience, rounds out every potential edge to the HUMMUCIDE EP. It displays a love, appreciation, and well-earned proficiency in the realm of jazz theory and genre mutations, betraying a confidence in craftsmanship that makes acts like HUMMUCIDE so immediately alluring. After getting in touch with the shine applied to tracks so many years in the making, we're gladly sitting tight until the next bout of finely tuned HUMMUCIDE adventures.

FOLLOW HUMMUCIDE: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Facebook

CloZee Conscripts Opiuo for “Heya” Remix on Forthcoming Remix Album

CloZee’s career has become a mainstay in the global circuit throughout the latter half of the 2010’s, pursuing a world-influenced composition style and a forward thinking bend towards rhythm and melody in the context of dance music. Her latest album, Neon Jungle, features a wide breadth of directions, tempos, and attitudes, succinctly tied together through CloZee's classic twist on organic percussion, instrumentation, and vibrant synthesis.

After calling upon a variable cast of international producers from across the spectrum, the remix album to Neon Jungle drops next week on October 30th, and the most recent single to surface ahead of the full touchdown is a powerful tease; Australian glitch legend Opiuo paired up with CloZee across the airwaves to conjure up a proper reimagining of the track “Heya”. Featuring his timeless rhythmic shuffles and pocketed sound design, the song is transformed from a jovial jaunt into a pulsing dance-floor escapade. A mixture of raw textures and precision engineering, it's a full-throttle interpretation on CloZee's already storied songwriting, solidifying the excitement in store for this undeniably potent release.

FOLLOW CloZee: Bandcamp / Spotify / Soundcloud / Facebook

CloZee · Heya (Opiuo Remix)

A Dialogue With Desert Dwellers Ahead of Beyond Borders 4

Over the course of the last 21 years, Amani Friend and Treavor Moontribe have broadcasted a seemingly unending and constantly evolving mixture of psybient and psychedelic music across the globe. With their own individual roots stretching back well into the 90s, and the duo’s intrepid introduction to one another through the famed Moontribe gatherings in the American desert, their sound is an amalgam of virtually all shapes and sizes of dance-centric electronic production. Given the whirlwind of uncertainty surrounding the long haul of this calendar year, they've adapted to the burgeoning digital formula of streamed events, birthing their Beyond Borders series and serving up choice curations towards a discerning, worldwide audience.

The previous Beyond Borders streams featured a host of eclectic acts and classic pairings within the Desert Dwellers umbrella; Random Rab, Kaya Project, Bluetech, and a cast of other audio and visual artists across three distinct episodes. The third installment was especially exciting, given the inclusion of a conversation with the world-renowned mycologist Paul Stamets. In anticipation of their fourth installation to the Beyond Borders series, The Rust has partnered with Desert Dwellers and the non-profit project Unite to host tomorrow night’s digital festivities. We sat down across the airwaves for a candid conversation with Friend and Moontribe about the streams, their recent remix series, and the Desert Dwellers experience.

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The Rust: Your Beyond Borders series has been a tightly curated experience thus far. What drives your first instinct on the artists you choose for each edition of the stream?

Desert Dwellers (DD): It’s pretty simple, we work with artists we know and whose music we love. We often work with ones we've released on our label or have done remix exchanges with. 

The Rust: The last edition of Beyond Borders featured a conversation with the mycologist Paul Stamets; how did you end up bringing him on board for the stream? Is there a history between you?

DD: Amani has become good friends with Paul over the last few years and we've now released two tracks with his spoken word featured. We have another track with his words done and plan more in the future. 

The Rust: How has your experience been dealing with the overwhelming push towards digital music events?

DD: The main challenge is getting people to tune in. The market became instantly flooded so really we just try to present something that is authentic to who we are and the scene we represent. We also bring forth a pretty diverse musical selection and don't just focus on one main style for our entire shows. 

The Rust: The Breath Re-Imagined series has been extremely extensive from start to finish. Can you talk about your initial vision and motivation for the remix series?

DD: It's a tradition now for us to do several remix albums for every artist album we release. For this series though we've moved into two new music genres so we've brought on over 20 artists we've never worked with before in the slower BPM downtempo house and uptempo tribal organic/progressive house scenes. It was certainly challenging to get a lot of these artists on board since we've never worked with them and we're not an artist well known in their scenes. We are really pleased with the end results though and honored to work with so many incredible musicians. 

The Rust: What are the typical motivators when you sit down to begin each next project in the Desert Dwellers catalog?

DD: We usually have a specific style in mind we're gearing toward with each track, like the Breath album we wanted to create a slower house album that hinted back to the earliest music we made together. Currently we're working on a series of new remixes for mostly Psy Trance artists where we half time their tempo and turn their tracks into Psy Dub tracks. 

The Rust: With such an extensive history under your belts, can you talk about how your own creative processes and inspirations have changed or evolved throughout the course of this career?

DD: Technology plays a huge role in how this process works. As new software is available that changes how things can be done it dictates how we go about creating new music. Mostly we just try to keep learning and getting better at what we do. 

The Rust: Speaking of history under the belt, you're both sure to have seen a variety of anxious or impactful situations to the world of live music. Can you speak about your perspectives on the variety of new norms and experiences throughout the course of 2020's pandemic and ensuing lockdowns?

DD: As a musician right now it's hard to see a light at the end of the tunnel. Even as other industries start to work again ours is literally at the back of the line. We have shifted our focus to our releases, merch and finding any ways possible to bring in a little income. We are fortunate to have built a strong brand over the years, but certainly it's hard to see live gigs returning to any sense of normal anytime soon. On the other side of that we have been very creative during this time. We in no way are slacking off and have made a lot of music this year. When other musicians and labels decided to take a break during this crazy time, we decided to keep pressing forward. Music is our salvation and we feel it's extra important to share music with the world during these times. 

The Rust: What's on the plate for Desert Dwellers' future?

DD: We have a steady release schedule with a third installment of Night Visions, our DD remixes compilation series, remix EPs of some of our earliest uptempo tracks to give them new life and a bunch of remixes we've done for other artists like Astrix & Vini Vici, Captain Hook and Hibernation. Other than that just working on our solo projects (Liquid Bloom, PheuZen, Forever & Ever) and trying to stay sane! 

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Tune in tomorrow on the Desert Dwellers Twitch channel from 6pm EDT until midnight to catch an entire evening of Android Jones alongside Uone, Yuli Fershtat, Ace Ventura, Eat Static, and a special closing set from Desert Dwellers in celebration of the release of Breath Reimagined Vol. 3.

If you’d like to connect further with the Unite platform, head over to their website to get better acquainted with their operation.

FOLLOW Desert Dwellers: Bandcamp / Spotify / Soundcloud / Facebook

Mirror Maze Partners with VALE to Release "Frustration" Single

VALE’s 2020 calendar year has been full of niche selections and unveilings; from DET’s Ocha remix album to Result’s Bone Bender EP, they’e touched on nearly ever manner of high-fidelity, guttural bass music. They’re next serving comes in the form of the hair-splitting single “Frustration” from the Los Angeles-based producer Mirror Maze; a relative newcomer into the wider system music radar, he’s clearly got the chops and the acumen necessary to go toe to toe with VALE’s usual roster of heavy hitters.

“Frustration” is a sublimated descent into granular synthesis and novel melodies. With a clear focus on spectral movement over contemporary rhythms, it’s a track that meanders at its own malleable pace, intertwining mad dashes of sonic pressure and calm, low-tide recessions into relaxed soundscapes. It fits the VALE formula like a glove, showcasing incredible production prowess with choice, eclectic compositions. It’s just a taste of the Mirror Maze project, but it’s more than enough of a serving to have us positively curious about what else he’s brewing in the laboratory.

FOLLOW Mirror Maze: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Facebook

FOLLOW VALE: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Facebook

Chalky & Seppa Redefine “In The Pocket” on Strange Changes LP

2019 saw the unveiling of Chalky and Seppa’s combined vision; Bright Spots was an instant hit right out of the gate, showcasing a compositional prowess and dedication to a pure, unadulterated vibe that has been the hallmark of soul-infused instrumentalists since the inextricable rise of jazz and blues music. In the time since that first collaborative album, the boys have been hard at work refining their combined acumen, and the result is a fusion album with few worthy comparisons; Strange Changes personifies what makes truly linear, narrative albums so enticing as a full package, and betrays the veteran confidence of their craft that makes this duo so strikingly vivacious.

Bright Spots was a finely tuned first forray into the ambling possibilities of Chalky and Seppa's combined output, anchored securely by it's groovy songwriting and moving instrumental duets. It was a stunningly well-produced experience, portraying a musical veneer that already felt far from it's infancy. Rather appropriately, Strange Changes carries the character of a project deep into it's maturity, exploring a comfortably fresh variety of dimensions and niche pockets within the realm of soul music.

Across fourteen tracks, Chalky and Seppa lay down a journey into vibrant nooks and technicolor soundscapes, meandering at a pace befitting a tempered stroll through psychedelia. The relationship between each song is the veritable glue of that journey, and a reprised staple that made Bright Spots so immediately palletable. “Bump It” opens the album’s front door with the perfect equilibrium of head-nod and sultry phrasing, gradually tuning the ears until you're trapped in the rhythm's absolute gravity. Once it has you, the only way out of it’s pull is to ride it out, and you'd be hard pressed to find a reason not to. From “Interplanetary Timeshare” to “Diffusion”, it's forward-thinking jazz and loungey instrumental saunters. From “Sizzle Me Timbers” on, the weighty edge of the duo's heavier production backgrounds begins to sublimate across the compositions. Braying harmonies and tactile sound design mingle together for a righteous impact, and that amped-up attitude carries on right up until the album's end. Aptly concluded with “Nap Time”, the very last tones of the release ring out like a somber lullaby, exuding a choice finality befitting of such a loquacious project.

There are many spins on the phrase “it's about the journey, not the destination”, and Strange Changes might be one of the finest and brightest iterations. It’s an ode to the power of painstaking compositions, berift of production shortcuts or hurried arrangements. Consequently, it is an album with the potential for near universal appeal, combining the impact and precision of contemporary engineering with timeless instrumentation. Two years and two full releases later, Chalky and Seppa show no signs of running dry of pure inspiration, and the magnitude of progression from Bright Spots to Strange Changes has our ears squarely fixated on their creative output. With nowhere else to go but up, we've no lack of confidence about the future of this blue-moon tag team, and you'd be just as wise to keep a tab on their every musical move.

FOLLOW Chalky: Bandcamp / Spotify / Soundcloud / Facebook

FOLLOW Seppa: Bandcamp / Spotify / Soundcloud / Facebook

Velour & Joro Dudovski - Dandelion [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

Sanctuary Collective has their finger squarely on the global pulse of novel electronic music producers. Their sophomore compilation, Warriors Vol. 2, features a host of burgeoning talent and underground heavy hitters, with each track pushing into a variety of niche territories and sound design palattes. In anticipation of the compilation's release, they've provided The Rust with the opportunity to premiere Velour and Joro Dudovski's collaboration, “Dandelion”.

The Rust Music · Velour & Joro Dudovski - Dandelions [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

Separately, Velour and Dudovski's productions are nothing to balk at; both producers excel in the spheres of song writing and high fidelity engineering, with fairly complimentary textures and motifs between them. As a result, “Dandelion” is a texture-laden dash through liquid sound design and fluid drum programming. Supple jazz chords play the role of the interloper, sprinting in and out of stereo space between smatterings of buoyant bass lines and transient downbeats. It's a composition all its own, rearranging and reimagining itself with every passing phrase and refrain, and it’s just a taste of what's in Sanctuary Collective's war chest for Warriors Vol. 2.

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Faelow Teams Up With Psychedelic Jelly to Premiere Debut EP

The Boston-based producer Faelow has only recently begun to step out of the lab and into the public eye, with a choice few tracks having surfaced over the course of the last year. After quietly aiming his creative trajectory towards textured, salient sound design and downtempo rhythms, his careful patience has paid off with a particular splash. He’s joined forces with the UK label Psychedelic Jelly to premiere the first true doorway into the Faelow catalog; Floating Underground.

With an obvious touch for psybient compositions and tonal relationships, Floating Underground maintains a smooth gradient of sounds and arrangements throughout each of the four tracks. “Spelunk” and “Cascade” feature a swath of smartly interpolated glitches and frayed layers mingling in and out of stereo focus with each other, carefully wrapping the listening experience in a scintillating outer cushion. That scintillation is perhaps the central tether to the EP, which is notably devoid of any harsh, abrupt, or abrasive movement. Instead, a clear command of subtle rhythms and interpolative songwriting takes center stage, as the first three tracks gradually dissolve into one other through clever refrains and malleable ending phrases. The slow roll towards finality happens with the namesake track of the collection; “Floating Underground” is an ambient dive into the calm, chilled waters of marine soundscapes. Flanged and splayed synthesis wraps around rushing waves of white noise and liquid risers, gradually ebbing and flowing into an effervescent resolution that ties together the core motif of the release.

With just a quaint smattering of tracks available for consumption, Faelow’s output betrays the makings of a lush journey through his own musical hemisphere. The craftsmanship behind Floating Underground has every hallmark of deliberately emotive composition, revealing an already steadily maturing grasp of crystal-clear songwriting. It’s all the more reason why we’re keen to keep a close eye on the future developments of Faelow’s catalog.

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Schmoop Unloads Distorted Grooves in Focal Point EP

Will Russek has spent the majority of his artistic time working from behind a closed curtain; in the six years since his initial musical touchdown via the Wonky Llama Noms EP, he's gradually developed and refined the edges of his personal Schmoop project. The dual release of “Charge/Get Back” in December of 2018 put us in touch with his own production chops and the emerging stylistic direction of his solo material, showcasing a blitz of shredded low end design and dancefloor-ready rhythms. Elaborating on his steadily-advancing compositional direction, the Focal Point EP is a potent combination of palatable grooves and pure firepower.

The driving focus of the Focal Point EP lies somewhere in the midst of broken-beat rhythms and meaty synthesis; the funked-out bass lines ungulate with razor-sharp distortion without obfuscating the tertiary elements of the music. The relationship between lean drum patterns and hyper-saturated low end in “Hard Edges” exemplifies the tight control of the EP's composition, smoothly interpolating sheer mass and clever turnarounds. Balancing out the spectrum of tones and atmospheres, “Outskirts” brings salient drum programming and meandering harmonies to the forefront, toning down the mean-muggedness and amplifying the melody-centric side of of Russek's musical realm. In tandem, the EP's tracks touch on the burgeoning cornerstones of the Schmoop project, and provide the clearest lens yet into it's potential future developments.

Russek's reputation as an undercover gun slinger has preceded him for quite a few years, and the delivery of the succinct, precision package that is the Focal Point EP puts a veritable seal of authenticity on the musings of the grapevine. With a laser-sharp understanding of stereophonics and pocketed grooves, we're undeniably curious as to what comes next, but in the meantime, we’ll be helping ourselves to oversized portions of Focal Point.

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Hullabalo0 - Habaneuro [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

Hullabalo0’s catalog is the product of a consistent, dedicated passion within the nebula of low end sound design and groove theory. After nearly a year of audio experiments and a powerful growth in compositional scope, he’s prepped to unveil the Habaneuro LP, with The Rust being given the opportunity to premiere the album’s namesake track.

The Rust Music · Hullabalo0 - Habaneuro [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

“Habaneuro” is exactly as it’s name suggests; brazen, lush, and undeniably spicy. The outer edges of the track begin and end with vibrant, meandering jazz breaks, giving the track a life and soul beyond just rugged synthesis and brackish textures. Sandwiched between the smoothness is a vicious breakdown wielding stereoptic bass and fragmented glitches, merging tones and waveforms into an electronic potpourri of force and firepower. “Habaneuro” is the torch that lights the album’s pyre, and it's more than just a taste of what’s soon to come from the mad machinations of Hullabalo0.

Pre-order the Habaneuro LP here

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Relativity Lounge Thoroughly Breaks the Beat with Defect EP

Based out of Chicago, Illinois, Jack Jamison explores a vast musical terrain through his Relativity Lounge project. With tracks dipping into steady-beat shuffles, broken-beat rhythms, and swelling soundscapes, he’s positioned himself as a jack-of-all-trades producer, but not without distinct characteristics; his catalog exists somewhere in the murky nexus of bass music production and mottled, lo-fi textures. Furthering his descent into that sublimated rabbit hole, he’s channeled his most recent lab experiments through The Great Magnet music label, culminating in the Defect EP.

A marriage of precision synthesis and washy atmospheres, the Defect EP ‘s jaunty grooves make it astoundingly difficult to remain stationary once it’s frequencies start pumping out of some proper speaker cones. The sample play and synth slicing within the arrangement of the tracks is designed for one primary function; cycloidal head nodding. Be it the glitchy lullaby of “Palpate”, or the subtle, melodious meandering in “Axiom”, the overarching theme remains firmly intact across the EP, with a particular focus on pocketed percussion arrangements; the drum programming and tilted swings in the rhythm section of every track drive the entire release with more than enough horsepower to go toe to toe with more traditionally aggressive bass music formats. It’s a distinct package served in a palatable format that couldn’t possibly go down any smoother.

Relativity Lounge has steadily brought himself to a point of compositional swagger, and it pays off tremendously. The release of the Defect EP showcases a clear evolution of his personal sound design and musicianship, and it’s left us both mollified and curious for more. Whatever format his next productions choose to take on, we’re confident that Relativity Lounge will continue to push the envelope in novel, tasteful directions.

FOLLOW Relativity Lounge: Bandcamp / Spotify / SoundCloud

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Poztman - Ancestral Data (Rite of Cunning) [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

Poztman’s stylized brand of dark, tech-heavy electronic production has earned him a mainstay position in the world of avant-garde and experimental music. In an ever-lasting quest to push his own conceptual boundaries, he’s partnered up with the hybrid label Outtallectuals to present his latest laboratory payload; Rites of Calling. In anticipation of the full EP release, The Rust has been given the opportunity to premiere the track “Ancestral Data (Rite of Cunning)”, loosening the seal on this new suite of compositions.

“Ancestral Data” brings scintillation to the forefront, with mottled, glitched-out textures splaying across the backdrop of the songs runtime. Brackish bass meets scalloped granular synthesis in a mist of sonic intrigue, pulsing like a reverberant steel heartbeat. With percussion provided by Byzantine Sound Machine, It’s a marriage of tribal and industrial influences sauntering around noire sound design and faded, momentary melodies. With a crystal clear focus on atmosphere and immersion, “Ancestral Data” channels the full spectrum of Poztman’s meticulous production skill set.

In tandem with the compositional precision of the EP, Poztman has envisioned and crafted a narrative surrounding a distant future in which these rites of passage bring one closer to their innate identity. Each step of the journey shares the lucidity and jagged psychedelia of the accompanying song, creating a truly multi-faceted experience around Rites of Calling.

The Rust Music · Poztman - Ancestral Data (Rite of Cunning) [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

Rite of Cunning:

Alix is somewhat confused by the cryptic advice his ancestors gave him. He doesn’t need to worry, as no one can triumph all challenges equally. The Rites serve as guidance for one’s adult life, to find their Calling. A rite is passed when the Ring blesses the challenger with the according mark. Dao’s attempt at summoning was near to fruitless, though Rey managed seemingly without effort. All received the mark of community nonetheless, as the way of the Rings & the Harvesters is mysterious. Alix feels confident in the next challenge: the Rite of Cunning. He & his friends will have to enter the Birthing Grounds, the place where their first ancestors long dead came to live, out of machines made by the Harvesters. Here they will have to access the ancient codex, a gift from the Harvesters. The village Elder asked them to find out where other hunting grounds may lay, as the village’s supply starts to dwindle. The Codex must contain that knowledge, the Elder is confident. Alix knows the task seems trivial, but Steelings guard the place for unwelcome trespassers. The young ones will have to prove their cunning.

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Voljum - Electric Forces (Smigonaut Remix) [EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

Voljum’s debut EP cyberglobe put a laser focus on the intersection between jazz, sound design, and intuitive sample play, solidifying his unique production narrative. Looking to merge new perspectives with his high fidelity palette, cyberglobe (Remixes) makes landfall at the end of this week, and The Rust has been tapped to premiere the Smigonaut remix of “Electric Forces”.

The Rust Music · Voljum - Electric Forces (Smigonaut Remix)[EXCLUSIVE PREMIERE]

With a natural inclination towards all things swing, Smigonaut’s arrangment philosophy slides into the design of “Electric Forces” with ease; Reframed rhythms bring down the energy ceiling of the track without compromising the weight and the mass behind each measure. It’s a careful twist on a playful composition, balancing moody hues and sharp clarity to fully pronounce the song’s attitude. On their own, Voljum and Smigonaut are electrified forces in their own right, so it should come as no surprise that their combined might oozes out of the “Electric Forces” remix.

Pre-order the Bandcamp Remix EP release here

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FOLLOW VALE: Bandcamp / Soundcloud / Facebook

Polliwobble Fuses Organic Percussion and Fierce Synthesis in Abstertion

The combination of organic instrumentation and digital sound design is a marinade universally applicable to the many facets of electronic music, and Polliwobble has been experimenting with his own distinct production blend for over a decade. The rawness of his synthesis palate and the earthy, reverberant drum lines channel a grit and a weight that is the signature touch of his musicianship. His most recent album, Abstertion, displays a maturation of the Polliwobble production process and an exploration of industrial soundscapes and textures.

Polliwobble · Polliwobble - Abstertion Album

A marriage of smooth-bore melodies, pound-for-pound bass lines, and syncopated, off-kilter drum lines fills out the body of Abstertion, with bold cuts and bolder breakdowns delivering a bone rattle from track to track. The energy remains tense throughout the various compositions, ramping down only for the most subdued moments across the album. The title track, “Abstertion”, balances those polar hues in a fierce dance between bandpass filters, reesey textures, and a broken beat percussive jaunt that is both razor-edged and rhythmically juiced up. It’s a new skeleton beneath the meat of classic neuro bass, with a brackish palate all it’s own. While the majority of the album’s contents feature production-heavy tones and tool sets, the closing track, “Chirality”, is also it’s most standout; a downbeat blend of scalar relationships, subdued modes, and instrumental harmony that rivals the pocketed groove of pure jazz. It’s made all the spicier by a retro synth saunter out of frame at the concluding measures of the track, bursting with dance floor sentimentality, and capping of the album with a true white glove finale.

“Abstertion” is an both a departure from the Polliwobble works of the last several years and a logical progression of his own signature brand. It’s steel-coated, but still warm in the right places, and the heavy focus on organic drum tones gives the album a distinct approach to hybridized bass music. With a clear pattern of multiple releases across relatively short time spans, it makes us all the more curious to hear how the Polliwobble project with continue to shape and develop its musical machinations.

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Pi Wrecks Pulls Back The Curtains On Slivers of Light

The Pi Wrecks discography has featured a tight focus on soul and hip-hop production throughout the course of his career, with a gradual evolution in his songwriting and production palette. His last two major releases, Arrival and From The Heart Pt.1, define a push towards synthesis and elevated sound design, and just two years on, those choice developments have marinated into a full length, twelve track album that spans the breadth of his influences and sonic directions. Slivers of Light is the most ambitious project in his catalog, expounding on the brightest affects of the Pi Wrecks experience.

The attention to sample slicing and splicing has been at the forefront of Pi Wrecks' music from his inception as an artist; mottled snares, vinyl dust, and notative artifacts are mainstay aspects of his productions, but their musical integration and sonic shaping has been continuously refined from release to release. Slivers of Light hones in on the Pi Wrecks blend of topical, emotional beats in a way that feels both narrative and independent. Each track is a full chapter of tangentially related stories told through note choice and delivery, with tracks like “You Create You” and “Snowfall” channeling scalar relationships into stirring mental movements. The attention to detail can't be overlook, and the interlocking weave between each song builds a steady inertia from front to back that makes Slivers of Light a premium take on no-frills, classic electronic hip-hop.

The flux of focus on genres and styles moves at lightning pace in the world of electronic music, and while some choose to follow those developments in real time, others find themselves choosing to develop familiar territory. Pi Wrecks has maintained his brand of sultry cuts and pocketed rhythms throughout the progression of his career, making him a mainstay choice for hip-hop and beats lovers across the spectrum. While we’re busy lounging in the vibrations of Slivers of Light, our minds are already wandering towards the next installment of Pi Wrecks possibilities.

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TALEX Unveils the Juiced Up Transcendence EP

Combining the time tested slicing and cutting of beats music with high fidelity samples and synthesis, TALEX explores a sensual, melodic side to his artistry in his Transendence EP. It's a choice switch-up from his previous offerings of neuro-hop and heavy-handed glitch production, showcasing his evolving depth of musical character.

In contrast with rhythmic focus of Anti-Gravity, Transendence has a strong monopoly on polytones and rich chord phrasing. Channeling moody atmospheres with rock solid tones and saturated sub bass, it’s a vibrant soul record that eschews leaning too far into synthesis and surface-layer effects. The individual tracks themselves feature a number of repetive patches and textures that makes the EP feel like a set of chapters in a succinct novella, using auditory allusion to bridge the gap from song to song. The entire release adds a fresh, soulful spin to the ongoing TALEX collection, diversifying an early discography with a strong assortment of varied takes and styles.

The various topical blends of beats music each have their distinct flavors and hues, and TALEX takes a page from a handful of stylistic directions to craft a full-spectrum EP that shines a light on strong note relationships and harmonic phrasing. In a bit under a year, we've gotten back to back renditions of TALEX's burgeoning aural attitude, and the genre spread across his limited catalog already has us bright eyed and zeroed in on what new mechanations may come over the horizon.

FOLLOW TALEX: SoundCloud / Bandcamp

MALAKAI and Colony Productions Pair Up to Release Axiome

MALAKAI’s musical acumen has been at the forefront of his career from the jump; eschewing sound design and genre trends at every turn, he has instead carved out a warm, cinematic territory amongst his chilled-out contemporaries. His meticulous, emotionally charged tracks soar across stereo space, channeling experiential dives into sonic dreamscapes born in the center of MALAKAI’s creative domain. As each release sees the light of day, the fog of war rolls back on the next footsteps in the MALAKAI story, accessing ever more novel boundaries of music production and arrangement. In partnership with the venerable Colony Productions, he’s finally cracked the seal on 2020’s first suite of MALAKAI machinations: Axiome.

Axiome’s offerings are quintessentially in line with the constant variable across MALAKAI’s discography'; a musical styling that places notation at the helm of the ship, steering compositions through glitchy astroid belts and featherweight musical nebulas. While the territory’s charm remains familiar, Axiome explores a more rugged terrain than previous MALAKAI EP’s, with a grit, width, and movement that builds on the robust characteristics of his music. The egress into that terrain is “Apollo”, an ode to the transient god of music, knowledge, and the sun. Stuttered arpeggios roll across a bed of sub weight, cushioning the melody and filling out the sparser corners of the spectrum. It’s a serenade amongst reverberant tones and mothballed frequencies that round together to form a smooth, contiguous musical torus. The heft in “Apollo” is counterbalanced by the EP’s amicable farewell, “Solace"“; a gentle cascade of legato bends and slides meet harmonious, supple chord phrasing for a novel, starlit dance through synthesis. It’s the characteristic MALAKAI thumbprint, complete with choice granular cuts and a careful serving of liquid low end, and it wraps up the EP with the same multi-hued aesthetic that turns the very first pages of Axiome.

MALAKAI’s catalog continues to simultaneously evolve its production standards while traversing each successive phase of the MALAKAI journey. It’s an even-paced waltz through stereophonic sound, translating an emotional output into a musical frame of reference. The transition from Odd Views to Axiome feels as biological as it is methodical, and while we’re soaking up the fruits of MALAKAI’s most recent labor, we can’t help but keep our eyes and ears aimed squarely at his future.

Axiome is currently available for purchase on Bandcamp, and will become available for stream and download from all other major platforms on the 17th of July. You can pre-save the release on Spotify here.

FOLLOW MALAKAI: Soundcloud / Spotify / Bandcamp / Website