In keeping with yesterday’s trip into the experimental Ambient Sunday also takes a lightly experimental path with Elëa Bud.
Elëa Bud is an Ambient artist from France whose work usually tends towards the cinematic. Here’s a track that takes a slightly more experimental and interesting path.
Interphase offers you bleeps and bloops as an opening. But there soon follows a warped fairground ride melody and a bit of theramin type sounds. That’s never a bad thing.
The track settles into a gentle duet between the bleeps and the melody. Bass throb and some background percussion give the tune a lovely rich base. Some far off almost New Age ethereal sounds arrive but luckily soon depart.
Despite the strangeness there’s a lovely calming sense to this track. It never quite settles down but equally doesn’t feel the need to disrupt.
An introspective air to it all. Think of it as music of the nanosphere.
Experimental French techno is on the menu today, courtesy of Vihainen Kissa.
Vihainen Kissa (Paul Delayre) is from France but based in Czech Republic. He comes with the message “Music is political, music is our frustration, our fears, our distress, and our destructive drives. Music is not a trend or a fashion statement; it is a movement that goes against convention.” How very French.
Here’s new single Disruption Périodique. A three minute statement. Techno as edgy art.
This manages to fuse several repetitive techno elements in ways that offer coherence but also the disruption of the title.
There’s a synth sound that sits atop the raw and slightly retro beats. It gallops along with a nervous energy that keeps the tension inherent to the track.
There are slower beats but these are subordinate to the otherwise headlong rush.
There’s no melody as such. But this isn’t trying to win you over, simply to unsettle you.
Proper headphone techno. Those of a nervous disposition should listen elsewhere.
I always associate deep house with the summer when you want something a bit gentler and a bit cheerier. Here’s a couple of delightful tracks from Nutritious and Reinhout.
Nutritious is from New York. His biog says “Nutritious signed his first record deal at 16, was promoting at the Palladium by 17, and held the first residency as Save The Robots transitioned into its next chapter – at the height of Giuliani’s cabaret crackdown – playing all-night all-vinyl Saturday sets for the devoted East Village crowd.”
Here’s the utterly appropriate Endless Summer from the mini album Solarmaxxing (that title – urgh).
Endless Summer is gorgeous. It’s a smooth yet funky mix of deep house and organic house with a touch of nu-disco.
The track offers a soft throb of beats as the track is carried along on rising piano chords. They loop over and over as the track chugs and swings.
Everything is deep and rich. A track for sunsets and sunrises. Summer as a heady time of pleasure seeking. Proper lush.
Norway’s Reinhout offers, perhaps understandably, a cooler interpretation of deep house. But still beguiling.
Reinhout is a new artist whose biog offers “The project explores emotional electronic music inspired by artists like Christian Löffler, Kiasmos, and Parra for Cuva.”
The featured track is debut single not enough. This is deep house with a more introspective vibe. There’s a focus on bass synth and desecending cool tones.
Reinhout says that he’s “Drawing inspiration from Nordic landscapes, changing seasons and fleeting moments.” And the track definitely evokes that.
A coolness of gently swelling oceans in the ebb and flow of the main synths. A splash of greenery and nature in the more top end wonky keyboard sounds.
This is warming but only delicately so. It holds everything loosely as if at a distance. The melody delivers understated emotion.
All braced for the fifth UK heatwave. While I wait for the day to heat up here’s some cooling drum and bass vibes from Blow Dart.
Blow Dart is from Victorville, California who offers only that he’s “providing dnb jungle house hip-hop tracks for y’all to vibe to.” Not sure about ending a sentence on a preposition but he’s not wrong about his dnb jungle house mix.
Here’s his latest single, out a couple of weeks back, Blue Label. This is a smooth mix of some house type dreamy keyboards and jittery jungle beats.
The chords and beats are held in a cool tension. The dreaminess is never allowed to settle. The beats are constantly fighting back. A bit of Spanish sample (I couldn’t follow what it was saying) offers a welcome bass low addition.
Summertime study beats today with Paradox, and Luke Ob. Both have a lovely jazzy swing.
Paradox is a regular here . This is his sixth appearance but the first in a year. He’s a Denver, Colorado based rapper who, happily for me, also releases instrumentals of his tracks.
Here’s the instrumental version of his new single Unplugged.
Unplugged is a gentle late night tune. The beats are heavy but the jazz piano is kept light.
A little brass helps to carry the track and gives it that wee small hours in a smoky bar feel.
This track is all about the smooth vibe it generates. Pour yourself a whisky on the rocks and dive in.
Sticking with that late night bar vibe we have Luke Ob from Poland.
Luke describes himself as “Producer and beatmaker with roots in hip-hop since 1995. Crafting instrumental music where lo-fi aesthetics meet jazz sensibility, boom bap rhythm and dusty sample culture.”
Here’s Six Degrees of Jazz from his forthcoming album Organic Geometry, out on 14 August.
Six Degrees of Jazz is just that. It’s a very jazz focused track that pushes at the boundaries of study beats. But there’s just enough thump from the beats to deliver something smooth and satisfying.
This takes some jazz piano and brushed beats before adding a smooth brass confection. Heavier beats follow later.
What really makes this is that it’s a composition that doesn’t revolve around loops. It has a more spontaneous feel of shifting patterns, a late night jam session if you will.
It delivers on something that has a sense of the organic and leaves the digital world behind. A track that honours the roots of the study beats sounds. Effortlessly classy.
A new track from Dionisaf for Ambient Sunday as well as news about a free compilation he’s just released.
Dionisaf (Dionis Afonichev) is from Washington DC. His biography describes him as “an American multi-instrumentalist, ambient sound and visual artist, composer, and producer. Founder and general manager of Chitra Records and its divisions.”
He’s just released a new single from forthcoming album Mississippian on Whitelabrecs.
Abandoned Road is the single. This is another minimal classic. Everything is low key but perfectly in harmony.
This time the held tones are pushed into the background to allow some delicate guitar and the occasional ripple to hold centre stage. T
he guitar starts in a haunted Americana vein before drifting off into something more classical and fragmented.
A soundscape to be sure. But beautifully delivered and despite the minimal tones utterly compelling. Wistful or sad? You need to decide.
And so to the compilation. This is Parallel Worlds (2021-2026). It’s out now on Bandcamp as a name your price release and includes tracks from various compilations spanning five years.
There’s lots of heavy drone and minimal offerings. There’s a bit of classical influences but it’s immersive stuff, so dive in.
Lullabies is back with a new track. This time the spaghetti western boom bap has morphed into some faraway electronic Americana on Lost Dutchman.
Lullabies is from Phoenix, Arizona and has become a bit of an Acid Tedblog favourite. Mostly, his work has a chilled dusty boom bap feel. New single, Lost Dutchman, takes a different path.
Lost Dutchman is, I assume, named after the Arizona state park (itself named after the fabled Lost Dutchman’s gold mine).
Musically, it has a faraway quality to it. A note of melancholy and setting sun warmth in the plaintive guitar and the hollow beats.
This is very much a track of the aftermath and isolation. The beats have a wooden blankness. The guitar slowly strums with reverb. But behind it all is a darkness in the chords that speak of pain and loss.
Not an especially easy listen given the emotional heft but utterly haunting.
If you want some more Lullabies , there’s also a remix of By The Fire for Zen Haze. This is the lofi project of New York based producer Aaron Kruk.
The Lullabies remix takes the dusty boom bap I love and adds a bit of jazz and some heavier guitar. It’s a nice remix that makes the most of losing the original heavy percussion to offer something lighter and sweeter.
It’s Friday again. Get up and dance with some melodic techno from Ein Sam… (yes, the dots are part of the artist name).
Ein Sam… is from Leipzig, Germany. He says “Music has kept me going since my early days. From hearing it all day long on the radio and playing it every Wednesday in clarinet classes, to finally learning how to make my own sounds.”
His debut release is Für Vero, of which he says “It’s inspired by the sounds of the great harpist Mary Lattimore and the electronic beats of Paul Kalkbrenner.”
Kalkbrenner definitely appears in the use of beats but Lattimore not so much to my ears. What Ein Sam… delivers is a chunky piece of warm melodic techno.
Für Vero is a mix of high end beats and some deeper bass sounds. It’s infused with a lovely warm melody that has that German melodic techno feel.
And yet, despite or perhaps because of the melody this has a definite dance floor feel. It’s never overwhelming but does like to periodically take off in a hypnotic whirl.
The synth stabs offer a pulsing feel that gives it that club touch. Warm and uplifting this is good for your soul.
Watching the sun coming up or going down is something special. Watched so many beautiful sunsets on holiday. Fewer sunrises. But here’s some music inspired by sunrises from AeraOn.
AearOn is a German electronic producer who is also a former ER-nurse for psychiatry and neurology. #musicformentalhealth His work is a mix of Future Garage, atmospheric techno and immersive sound design.
His new Exit Strategy EP is, he says, “inspired by quiet hospital sunrises after years as an ER nurse—a restrained, emotional journey.” I’m featuring the rather beautiful title track from the EP.
Exit Strategy is a lovely mix of some garage that has the spartan clatter of Burial alongside drifting synths.
The track is taut as if it is willing itself not to burst open. The gentle garage has to contend with harder bassier sounds and some sub bass that reeks of anxiety.
This is a brilliant piece for home listening to allow you to fully appreciate the intricate layers of this track until it almost hisses to a halt two third of the way through.
But neither it nor you are done as the dense beats and bass urge you forward. Quite brilliant.
Back with some classic techno sounds from ProOne 79.
ProOne 79 is Italian based producer Gioele Cantoni. He’s from Sardinia and has been a producer since the 90s. His work is deeply rooted in Acid and old-school flavored House and Techno, being heavily influenced by Chicago and Detroit sounds.
He has a brand new EP out Arachnophobia, from which I’m featuring the title track. This is a classic piece of ProOne 79 techno offering a clean winning version of Detroit techno.
Arachnophobia is perfect Detroit techno. The beats are insistent without being heavy. There’s an analogue machine music vibe which still feels like the sound of the future.
This track is light on its feet with piano stabs and synthetic handclaps for that proper old school feel, and even a sly nod towards jacking house.
Full force dance floor techno of the old school but still looking forward.
ACID TED 