Ambient / Drone Recommendations October 2017

Review: A collaboration between Suzanne Kraft aka Los Angeleno Diego Herrera and the Antinote/LIES affiliated D.K. aka Dang Khoa Chau for Jonny Nash's Melody As Truth imprint. The label has thus far acted as an outlet mainly for Herrera and Nash's work, both individually and in collaboration: such as on the label's last release: the Passive Aggressive LP. Lush ambient journeys incorporating pristine digital textures and the metallic glimmer of classic FM synthesis are what is on offer here, for the most part: lo-fidelity dreams that flicker with neon-lit aesthetics all captured in VHS/Betamax resolution. Think of the perfect blend between Herrera's What You Get For Being Young LP in 2016 and the downbeat moments on Chau's Island Of Dreams LP for Antinote of the same year and you have a pretty good idea of how it sounds.

Review: The sixth release of Amsterdam record label Safe Trip brings together a few dozen ambient tracks from Japanese twin brothers Satoshi & Makoto from Kawasaki. The whole album's beats, melodies and musical phrases come from the Casio CZ-5000: which gives the record its name. Label chief Young Marco discovered their music via YouTube videos, which the two musicians had recorded in order to illustrate the possibilities of the aforementioned instrument and most of the material was said to be influenced by acts like The Orb and Yellow Magic Orchestra. According to the label, it is largely of an ambient nature, positive mood and possibly alien origin.

Review: Much to the surprise of many house enthusiasts, Joe Claussel's Sacred Rhythm imprint delves into plenty of different genres and styles, all of them bound together by a recurring thread of percussive delight. Paul David Gillman debuts here, coming through with three gloriously loose slices of kinetic ambient fuzz, with the terms 'new age' and 'balearic' coming through vividly. The opening "Red Earth" is a supremely jazzy whirlpool of sonics and harmonic delight, which evaporates neatly into the much vaster planes of "Installation III". "Winter's Moon (excerpt)" washes away all the fury and energy of the previous two tracks to end up somewhere desolate and calming, offering a beautiful piece of soundscaping for the ambient fans. Recommended.

Review: Tangerine Dream's new studio album coincides with the 50th anniversary of the band. In 2014, Original member Edgar Froese with newcomers Thorsten Quaeschning, Ulrich Schnauss and Hoshiko Yamane began to work on what was planned to be the first album of Tangerine Dream's Quantum Years. This would be a new phase and promised an updated, contemporary take on the band's trademark sound of the '70s and '80s. From sequencer driven electronica to ambient soundscapes and energetic/upbeat moments. Quantum physics and philosophy had inspired Froese to attempt a translation of these concepts into music, however he passed away in early 2015. Froese requested that his wife - Bianca (visual artist and TD's manager for the last 15 years) would ensure his vision for the project be realized. Throughout the last two years, Quaeschning, Schnauss and Yamane worked hard on achieving a result that would match Edgar's expectations - as well as the ones of TD's loyal fan base. It's worth noting that the compositions appearing on the album are not only based on theoretical concepts and ideas Edgar had outlined, but also on a large number of actual musical sketches that he luckily had already prepared during the initial phase of the band's reformation process.

Review: Originally released in 1981, Dream Theory in Malaya: Fourth World Volume Two was recorded at Grant Avenue Studio in Hamilton, Ontario with the engineering and production help of Bob and Daniel Lanois. Hassell would experiment in the basement studio of Michael Brook's house in Toronto, who was helping him to coordinate the recording. From there he would commute to Grant Avenue and record down on multitrack, along with Brian Eno who was also there. The ambient legend played drums and bells on the tracks "Courage," "Dream Theory," and "These Times". This edition has been remastered and reissued for the first time in 36 years. Hassell coined the term 'Fourth World' to describe his musical style, as expressed both in his trumpet playing and in his approach to composition. The distinct style combines the philosophy and techniques of minimalism with Asian and African influences and relies heavily on the use of electronic recording techniques.

Review: It's time to step onto the veranda... Just to the side of the heaving dancefloors Melbourne's Griffin James has been attracting for several years with his powerful deep house blends, it's a space for more consideration, introspection and levitation as we tether our feet to the ground and let his most experimental, freeform compositions whisk us beyond the stars. Ambient, wavey, tender, Balearic; this is Francis Inferno Orchestra beyond the decks and disco as tracks such as "Mer Morte" and "Potential Of We" lap gently at our toes, slowly consuming us from the feet up. Elsewhere molten machines such as "Allodynia" bubble and froth into cloud-bursting crescendos and the gradually rising, barbed chords of "The Sweetest Embrace" wash over you like an epiphany. Breath-taking and innovative, Francis Inferno Orchestra has burnt right through any difficult second album cliches right here.

Review: No one knows who One Day is. No one knows what the title of this EP is called. No one knows what the tracks are called. But we know that this is Office... And everything Baaz's Berlin-based label puts out has a great deal of detail invested in it and always requires attention. This is no exception as the mysterious vibe maestro takes us from warm, jazz-tinged chugging deep house to cascading aquatic ambience that bubbles and pops dreamily via fuzzy, springy downtempo. Who knows who's behind this masterpiece? Maybe One Day we'll find out...

Review: Gravity Graffiti have released some great work in the last year by the likes of Marcello Napoletano, Soichi Terada and Yoshinori Hayashi. It is now the turn of Danish producers Natal Zaks aka Palta and his brother Milan Zaks aka Ti. They head up the Help Recordings imprint. Starting off with the the lo-fi deep house of "Andre Hjem" while the SPCE mix up next is more sci-fi and tribal: really nice this one. On the flip, we've got the tripped out ambient house of "Det Hurtige Track" which is just made for drifting and the EP's standout moment. Finally we get treated to the most uptempo moment on the release with "Gir Meg Hen" it's just a pity it only goes for three minutes as we'd have loved to have heard those funky polyrhythms trance us out a bit longer.

Review: Aris Kindt is the collaborative project of Francis Harris of the Scissor and Thread imprint and close collaborator Gabe Hedrick. Their new album Swann & Odette follows up 2015's Floods LP and is said to be influenced by French author Marcel Proust's novel In Search Of Lost Time. This new collaborative project builds upon Harris' decades long career spent pushing against the boundaries of electronic music as a producer and performer. Hedrick adds his own sonic signature in 'effects-laden layers of electric guitar and modular synthesizer.' The LP inaugurates Harris' new Kingdoms imprint, which aspires to be an eclectic new platform for adventurous music, as well as reissues of little-known obscurities. The album's sublime and evocative nature throughout ranges from reflective moments, through to abstract hypnosis and the downright cinematic. A real pleasure from start to finish. Highly recommended.

Review: After briefly appearing as one of those enigmatic Sahko white labels, we weren't sure if Konstellaatio would be pressed up for a general release, but thankfully, our Finnish friends are wary of our electronic needs...This LP is Classic Mika under his O guise - one saved primarily for his most contemplative works - and it's one of those releases that will capture you from the start and make you want some therapy at the end of it. Rich, textural drones running the whole way through and accompanied by sparse, doomed melodies and fluttering beats. It's a spectacular ordeal of harmonic delight. Don't wait around because these won't last for very long...

Review: Following up their stellar releases on Vladimir Ivkovic's Offen Music, Ivan Smagghe and Rupert Cross are releasing their new album through the French Idle Press label. For the past two decades, Smagghe has perfected the art of making spaced-out clubbers dance, has ridden a Fine Line (with Tim Paris) and run his label Les Disques de La Mort. Rupert Cross is a London based composer who has worked with Michael Finissy and Julian Anderson, as well as writing music for television and theatre. Timothy Dalton is the second full length for the duo, recorded before the aforementioned MA EP, which came out earlier in 2017. It features Tim Felton (formerly seminal UK group Broadcast) on guitar in addition to vocalist Andrea Balency and drummer Roman Turtev.

Review: Chicago born, Brooklyn based producer Max Ravitz is quite known for his dusty goth(am) house and techno experiments; easily recognised by their brazenly compressed/saturated analogue aesthetic that sound like live jams. It's more of the same on his new offering: A side cut "Learned Behaviour" is the most 'straight-ahead' we've ever heard Ravitz with this tunnelling, hypnotic and absolutely heads down affair that soon evolves via some classic house chord progressions and mad 909 snare theatrics. The bittersweet and melancholic "Diminished Feeling" is more typical of his earlier style on such heralded EPs like his Opal Tapes debut Body Issues: the sound of a lonely Bushwick loft space on a Friday night. The lush and atmospheric "Looking Outside" provides a welcome ambient moment for this fine EP. Yet more fantastic work from him this year, following up the three part epic Several Shades of The Same Color on Ghostly International.

Review: Copenhagen's Agnes Obel is no newcomer to the enlarged electronic scene thanks to a handsome package of previous releases for the mighty PIAS, an imprint responsible for all sorts of reissues throughout the 2000's and, of course, plenty of electronic crossover which have gone onto establishing new genres and styles. The surprise is that London's Phonica has decided to pick her brain for the sixth instalment of their Special Edition series, a corner of the label reserved for the more cerebral end of the 'house' and 'tech' domain. In fact, the A-side's remix of "Stretch Your Eyes" by Quiet Village is a deep and incandescent trip through sliding percussions and cavernous swells of electronic fuzz, sounding something like Burial and Bjork put together. Fantastic stuff. The 'ambient' mix of the same tune, on the B-side, dissolves the beats into an aqueous haze of melting vocals and hollow waves, offering a delightfully kinetic approach to the usually rhythm-empty take on drone. Lovely.

Review: Rezonal is a vinyl record label run by eastern European talents Krypt & Leonidas. It focuses on releasing music with distinct and forward thinking electronic sounds. Fans of the hypnotic techno sound: from the classic days of Prologue or Zooloft will no doubt be fans of this duo's work and their label. The powerfully hypnotic peak time onslaught of A side cut "Unknown Frequency" calls to mind the work of renowned specialists Deepbass & Ness. On the flip, the droning "Traces" will have you surrendering to the void in no time with its tunneling and strobe lit Finally the slow burning power. of Looking For The Exit carries a Jeff Mills style orchestral arrangement, over a broken beat and is perfect mood lighting for the opening or closing of a set alike.