Sometimes things just come together. Some North West London chill from MeloManic.
I’m currently reading classic crime novel London Particular by Christianna Brand and first published in 1952. The setting for the murder is a “London particular” (pea-souper) fog that blankets the city and specifically Maida Vale, where the author, Christianna Brand, lived.
And then I get a track from MeloManic called Maida Vale. How could I not feature it. The track art is of Sutherland Avenue in Maida Vale (though the old fashioned lamp posts may have been AI added – it was an early street to get EV charging on all lampposts).
MeloManic describes themselves as “someone who is passionate about music.” The genesis of the track, he explains, is “I was driving through Maida Vale, West London and I was inspired to create this song. The calm town and atmosphere made me think of the sound I wanted to make once I got back to my studio.”
Maida Vale has a lovely late night feel. The beats are lofi and unthreatening.
There is a mix of picked guitar and brass at the heart of the track with the regular swash of strings to give it that extra late night almost romantic sheen.
The sound of the glitter of street lights on rain splashed streets. There’s a lot of that about now. And you need to get a lot of this track.
Some lovely future garage for you today. Not a genre I tend to post very often. But Patros15’s new single offers a dreamy Burial-like take on garage.
Patros15 is from Slovakia. His biog says that he’s an “underground bedroom music producer and supporter Bearial. His work is characterised by a deep atmospheric sound based on introspection, as he has found his own emotional world in music.” Burial, Moderat, and Boards of Canada are influences.
This influences come through in his single Depersonalization but in a way that’s all his own.
Depersonalization was released a couple of weeks ago. It mixes light garage beats with a slowed almost psychedelic swirl of electronics and synths.
This is garage lost in the K hole. Everything is wading through treacle and struggling to break free. But that tension is at the heart of what makes this track great.
The track doesn’t end as such it more gives up with exhaustion. Quietly movingly beautiful.
An Ambient Sunday double bill with tracks from rabbitsquirrel and CIRC.
Rabbitsquirrel is from NYC (perhaps). The only biog I can find says the largely unhelpful “drone and experimental soundscapes, curtesy of sair, captured in the glitchen.”
Here’s Wait Until You See The Shimmer In The Shadow, out now on Soundcloud but not on Spotify until 13 February.
This is a lovely piece of modular synth with some lightly experimental circuit bending. It’s all rather woozy and more than a touch psychedelic.
Rabbitsquirrel says of the track “Meditative ambient track that features two melodies weaving together and living inside each other’s envelopes. It gentle evolves as it expands before coming back down to a rest.”
There’s a bit of The Black Dog here in the awkward ambient sounds. But also some of the organic pleasures of Boards of Canada. The overall effect is rather lovely like a self contained cat as it smooths and scratches alternately.
CIRC is François Rousseau (aka Eir Drift) from Nantes, France. His biog says that “He has been composing electronic music for over 20 years. He wants it to be accessible while still maintaining a touch of experimentation to accompany and captivate the listener and allow them to construct the meaning they wish through the sound.”
The featured track is Stellar Waltz from his Fading EP. He says it’s an “atmospheric emotional ambient tune evoking dreams and elusive spaces.”
This is a rich deep ambient track. There’s an almost sense of something symphonic at work here but the electronic sounds wear this influence lightly.
There’s a magic of the stars in the twinkling synth background whilst hazy synths scatter lightly in the foreground. There is a sense of reverie and peace here.
A track to lull you to sleep whilst delivering the feelings of the purest joy.
It’s the end of the week but I’m dialling down not up today. A brand new chill track from AcidTed favourite GaetDown with Gabb and Orange.
GaetDown is from France and describes himself as “music producer and fender bender.” This time he’s got a collaboration with Gabb from Montreal, Canada. His biog says “Gabb. est un beatmaker passionné qui façonne des instrumentales atmosphériques mêlant textures lofi, guitares lustrées et rythmiques envoûtantes.”
Released today is Orange. This is proper lush, albeit I wish it were longer. Two minutes ain’t enough here.
Orange opens with a lovely bit of mechanical record action. The chords are warm and fuzzy.
The beats have a bit of a sharper edge to balance out the sweetness. But this remains an utterly dreamy swoon of a tune.
Some guitar lazily drifts around. There are soft piano chords. A little “yo” for that inner city edge.
Oranges may not be the only fruit. But this track is all you need for late night kicking back.
Tribune is from Germany. But there’s no real biog. Only that “Who is Trebuen? A voice from the shadows, or an echo from the future? Existing somewhere in between, he blurs the line between reality and illusion.”
The shape shifting chimera has produced a twin track Origins EP. I’m featuring In Noc from the EP.
Of In Noc Trebuen says “A very personal and important Track once you understand the meaning.” I didn’t.
Nonetheless, In Noc is a rather wonderful piece of dark yet melodic techno.
This has a dark grandeur with solid beats and gradually ascending synths.
It builds itself up to something monumental and not a little threatening as the bass starts to distort.
An absolute banger for a club with gloomy corners and deep underground. Thrill in the darkness of it all.
Elbows up, Canada. Some gentle Canadian chill from Gold Soul Leo.
Gold Soul Leo is a multi instrumentalist producer from Ontario, Canada. He says, “I make chill music. Lo-fi hip hop, downtempo and liquid drum and bass are my main focus.”
Here’s the wistful and languid North Shore. It’s somewhere between lofi and study beats.
GSL says of the track, sounding like an advert for Canada, “North Shore is a song I made with cool autumn mornings in mind, hiking and wading along the rivers and streams that flow into Lake Superior with my dog Heidi while I fly fish and forage for mushrooms.”
Not quite like that in London, dodging the steams flowing down the street cos it’s raining the drain is blocked again and the little green bags of dog poo litter the trees.
North Shore has a lazy brilliance. A slow gentle piano melody mixes with a bit of lonesome guitar and background lofi beats.
The birdsong doesn’t sound terribly Canadian but it does add that outdoor flavour to things.
The track wends its way like a slowly flowing steam. Clear, cool and unhurried. Clear your mind with this lovely track.
An Ambient Sunday double for you with Spacecraft and Sol Nomad.
Spacecraft is Mumbai-based producer Rishi Bhatia who’s been creating ambient/electronic music since 2019. He’s appeared here a few time with his beatless beautiful soundscapes. And here’s another.
The Memory of Heaven is a just released track from forthcoming The Sky Remembers EP, out on 20 February.
In line with the track title this is a celestial vista of uplifting high tones. It manages to avoid drone by having a gently rolling set of movements and moods.
Simply beautiful.
Sol Nomad is from Germany. But I know no more than that. So, on with the music.
Here’s Iagu from the album Journey Frequencies ~ Africa. Sol Nomad explains “”I lived next to a small village in Guinea Bissau. After we built a new water pump, I made this track responding to that time and action. Iagu means Water in Kriol from Guinea Bissau.”
The track is a burbling piece of electronica filled with found sound of what I assume is the village.
People chatter. Life carries on. Chimes echo and pulse against the backdrop of drone.
Water burbles away. There’s a sort of calming contentment at work. A soundscape making connections across the globe.
A welcome back to Kodomo who has today released new single Sisu. Expect elegant IDM.
Kodomo is electronic music producer and composer Chris Child. His work has roots in IDM, minimalism, techno, and various styles of ambient music. “Kodomo” (子供) is the Japanese word for “child” – both a reference to his surname and the fact that he grew up in Japan.
He’s been appearing here on and off for over 10 years but it’s been almost two since he appeared. New single Sisu, the title track of his forthcoming album, is a wonderful vehicle in which to return.
Kodomo explains that Sisu is drawn from the Finnish word that embodies determination, grit, and quiet strength in the face of adversity.
Sisu may mean grit but as a track I found it beautifully uplifting. There’s a bit of the garage beats of early Burial dubstep mixed with that organic keyboard feel of Boards of Canada.
The keyboards have an analogue sheen and a warmth that’s utterly beguiling. This is IDM at its most human. A wonderful return and an exciting peek into the album out next month.
Here’s the debut album from waafer. And it’s a concept one built around Shakespeare’s Macbeth. Expect dramatic hip hop and treachery.
Waafer is from the US. She first appeared here last summer with the impossible beautiful ambient of i was your star, you were my sun. Now she’s back with her debut album.
Macbeth is a concept album built around the dark treachery and brutality of the foreboding and bloody Shakespeare play. It’s a hip hop album but one that cuts viciously and deep.
Waafer says of the album’s origins that “When I first started making it, I wasn’t even really thinking about even making it an EP, much less an entire album. But I always wanted to make a concept album…”
And here we are. She says “The production in it was inspired by Madlib’s beat-making on Madvillainy, combined with hints of Thundercat’s funk work, additionally combined with the ideas of old jazz themes and John Williams.”
I must admit I was expecting something kinda ambient and chilled. Not this. Waafer says “I wanted to flex my ability to make things like this, and having a discography of stark tonal whiplash just seemed funny and interesting to me.”
The album opens with a bang on Headless. Big bass driven beats are slice through with sharp strings. It’s all very cinematic and evocative. Deceptive Prophets follows. It’s a darker treacly affair. The beats slow to an almost dubstep pace and disembodied voices moan offstage.
Daybroke offers flutes and disconnected beats with a heavy edge of distortion. There’s almost a Drill sense here. Oh, Treachery belies its title with some smooth jazz brass. It’s a welcome relief after the claustrophobic sense of the previous tracks.
Ghosts starts in a drifting ambient vein before broken beats arrive to upset the calm. Intermission returns to the sophisticated study beat sound of Oh, Treachery. But you can’t quite relaxed with the backwards sound offering just a touch of the unsettling.
Good Intentions delivers some awkward choral elements. It’s all a bit spooky and dark. Macbeth, Macbeth is a sweet piano led track, despite the title relating to the witches coven.
False Comforts offers some more heavy broken beats in an almost psychedelic setting. Guilty Comforts gets close to ambient with the strange classical piano. But beats come to remind us that a final reckoning is near.
The album ends with Born of a Woman. The title is the prophecy from the witches designed to give Macbeth a false sense of security. But Macbeth ignores that Macduff was born via Caesarean section.
The track has an echoed portentous feel to the hip hop mimicked in its stately pace. Strings offer an uncomfortable dynamic. This allows the album to end on a sombre note, accentuated by the fake end and fade.
An ambitious album filled with dramatic uses of hip hop. It’s occasionally a bit too theatrical but delivers on the premise of the play and offering something you won’t hear elsewhere. Hip hop that’s bloody and hits straight for the heart.
Here’s a sneak peek of Lullabies’ new album Distilled. It’s a laid back American road trip. Full of dusty tracks, lonesome guitar and boom bap beats.
Lullabies is the instrumental project of Phoenix-based guitarist and producer Richard Lam. He describes his work as “Blending ambient guitar work andsoulful textures his music draws inspiration from artists like DJ Shadow, Tommy Guerrero, and the golden era of hip-hop.” Meanwhile, I’m sticking to my description of spaghetti western boom bap.
New album Distilled isn’t out generally until March but it is available as a pre-release download on Bandcamp. You can listen to six of the ten tracks that make up the album. And all 10 for $5.
Distilled is very much a road trip. It starts with Left In The Dust which is an early album highlight.
Left In The Dust has that cinematic edge to the guitar and a sense of blinding sunlight against which you have to narrow your eyes. A little Mexican edge to the guitar gives it that desolate frontier town vibe.
Quarter Till is a gentler proposition. The guitar is more strummed and the beats less oppressive. It’s a moment of calm reflection on the road ahead.
Idea Weapon has a late night bar feel with spooky small hours beats and a closing time trumpet.
Next, the previously reviewed hereDuelo De Almas (tr. duel of the souls/spirits) of which I said “This a cracking mix of hefty beats with some lovely Mexican style guitar. Proper day of the dead material.”
The half way point is Dust and Blood, where the guitar takes a more classical turn. An elegant elegiac track.
Thread The Needle hits the road again with a weary melancholic air. The guitar moves into a more bluesy rock style with background trumpet. You Know It also goes for that bluesy styling.
Title track Distilled offers a previously unheard heaviness to the proceedings in the beat and reverbed guitar. There’s an air of suspense and anxiety. Bad things are ahead.
The album closes with Conduit and For What It’s Worth.
The former is like that moment before the final shootout in a Western. When characters face their final reckoning. The music is mournful and the echoed beats sound of a death foretold.
The latter is the calm after the storm. The guitar is acoustic and light even when it adds some electric blues. Beats have an optimistic feel. The journey is over. You’re coming home. The credits roll.
ACID TED 
