Browsing Tag

electronica producer

heyiloveyou penned a monochromatically dark love letter to the trip-hop pioneers with ‘Never massivehead)’.

Posted on 30 September 2023

By imagining the atmosphere that trip-hop pioneers would create if they rose from the underground today, the Croatian solo artist, heyiloveyou, who has been demonstrating their imperviousness to genre and style constraints since 2020, unleashed their monochromatically dark single, Never (massivehead).

The quite genius titular portmanteau of Portishead and Massive Attack is far from where the ingenuity ends with this torridly electrifying release, which melds dark and caustic iconography with the stylistic catharsis to drench the airwaves in cinematically luxe gravitas.

In spite of the amalgam of the past and present day, the duality easily gave way to the synergy that floods the track through the guitars, drums, synths and beats. Get drenched by heading over to Spotify.

 

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Join Harry Bone in his ambient retro synthscape, Journey

Posted on 7 September 2023

After gaining a background in classical music and a conservatoire degree in orchestral percussion production, the Bristol, UK-based producer, composer, and mixing and mastering engineer Harry Bone started to take a more experimental and lo-fi approach to his sound after discovering that almost anything can serve a musical purpose.

His 2023 ambient album, Ambi, featuring the odyssey voyage of a single, Journey, is a cathartic exhibition of his freshly rendered explorative talents. The reverb-lavish keys weave cinematic melodies while still delivering a chill synthy lo-fi smorgasbord of nostalgic alleviation.

The single was constructed to depict the journey from naval-gazing self-pity towards gratitude and positive affirmative action. By euphonically visualising a trip through the woods while allowing elements of nature to coalesce with memories that still evoke positive emotion, Bone succeeded in crafting a consoling score that will set your imagination alight.

If you’re always on the hunt for soundscapes that facilitate tranquil mental repose, don’t hang around waiting to discover the quiescent gems in Harry Bone’s discography.

Stream the Ambi album on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Wrap yourself up in nasir mf.’s latest exhilaratingly illusory single, twine

Posted on 31 August 2023

After contorting genres to his creative whim and distorting soundscapes beyond previously conceived limits while still maintaining exhilarating earworm appeal, the Brooklyn-based independent artist and DJ, nasir mf., arrived at the epiphany that music is as boundless as the artist orchestrating it. His latest single, twine, is the ultimate manifestation of his limitlessness.

By evading the hallmarks of the perfect pop track and arriving at a far more decadently illusory sonic place via his experimentalism, nasir mf. created a portal of hyper-surreal escapism with twine. The chiptune-EDM-pop amalgam twists with every progressive turn to ensure your senses are electrifyingly heightened while you’re experiencing the ambient melodicism evolve into hardstyle momentum.

This is far from the first time we’ve found ourselves obsessed about the Brooklyn icon’s ingenuity, and something tells us he’s got plenty left in the tank to arrest us with.

twine hit the airwaves on August 22; stream it on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

UK producer, James Urquhart, delivered a transcendent EDM anthem with Fire on the Track

Posted on 23 August 2023
James Urquhart

While some artists and producers need an entire discography to demonstrate their versatility, the Chichester, UK-based electronica chameleon James Urquhart only needed one blazingly high-octane dance hit, Fire on the Track.

With grime and pop vocals adrenalizing the mix and enhancing the eclecticism of the EDM earworm that defies the laws of gravity with the transcendence it provides, you only need one hit of Fire on the Track before you’re obsessed with the progressively exhilarating groove-oriented mix that would make even the most rational crowd lose their mind on the dance floor.

Even though it has been a while since James Urquhart delivered his latest mix, as he has focused on honing his talents, he’s released on labels including Duffnote, Let There Be House, INK, and Soulful Evolution. He has also worked with everyone from Amanda Wilson to Amy Pearson to Everette Peters to Meshach Broderik. If Fire on the Track is anything to go by, his hard-hitting house production skills have been well and truly honed.

Fire on the Track hasn’t hit the airwaves yet; follow James Urquhart on SoundCloud and Instagram to be the first to know when it drops.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

The Manchester-based producer Tao Mitsu liberated his listeners with his transcendent mix, Just Let Go.

Posted on 20 August 2023

With textures and melodic progressions that go beyond immersive to offer aural escapism, when you’re enmeshed with the pulsating rhythms in the latest instrumental mix, Just Let Go, from the Manchester-based producer Tao Mitsu, space and time may as well cease to exist.

By starting with emotional impulses and constructing musical landscapes around them, each creation of Tao Mitsu is an evocative trip tinged with the full spectrum of human emotion rather than just riding euphoric waves. The fragments of melancholy within the groove and bass-driven ambient techno beats in Just Let Go capture the bittersweetness of loneliness, encompassing the primal pain of heartbreak and the first teasings of hope that appear on the periphery.

Just Let Go may not carry the definitive Manchester sound, but with the cover art depicting one of the cosy corners of the iconic Night & Day Café, Tao Mitsu succeeded in paying homage to the vibrant and eclectic music scene via his nostalgia-driven, transcendently liberating leftfield electronica anthem.

Just Let Go reached the airwaves on August 13th; stream it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Numbsoul welcomes you into unfamiliarly inviting territory with his downtempo trip-hop hit, Break Free

Posted on 13 August 2023

With syncopated beats brushing up against ambient electronic melodies that allow you to trip into an unfamiliarly inviting gritty urban territory, the latest single, Break Free, from the singer-songwriter, producer, audio engineer and sound designer, Numbsoul is a short and sweet slice of sonic transcendence.

The NYC-raised artist, who goes by the name Dashaun Riley away from the mixing desk, started self-teaching and performing in the arts at age seven; he’s had plenty of time to hone his multi-faceted crafts since finding inspiration from the likes of Kanye, Timbaland and G-Unit.

At age 15, he stepped up his creativity by evolving from a music composer and screenwriter into a music producer. His sounds can be heard reverberating through the NYC underground and within the mainstream after featuring on one of Universal Music Group’s official Spotify playlists and signing a deal with Sony. If you’re waiting to see the rise of the latest NYC luminary, watch this space; Numbsoul is sure to dominate it with his culturally-balling beats.

Stream Break Free via SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sensitive Golgoth’s ambient deep house cut, Aie confiance !, went right down to the bone

Posted on 3 August 2023

Life science researcher by day and electronic producer by night, Sensitive Golgoth poured just as much intellect into their latest single, Aie confiance ! as they injects into their research on how digital worlds may help humans empathise with other lifeforms.

The ambient deep house soundscape is an extension of their empirical work, which can be quantifiably noted through the blurred boundaries between the material and synthesised worlds. The groove-driven beats mellifluously cruise through the cathartically elemental atmosphere of the release that uses naturalism as a soundboard.

The transcendentally resonant bliss is a bubble that you never want to burst once the melodies get into intrinsically organic motion. Short of stepping out into nature and forest bathing, there’s no better way to connect with the universe than delving into Aie confiance !

Stream Aie confiance ! by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Embark on an oceanic odyssey with Specie11’s latest single, Jellypus

Posted on 10 June 2023

After cutting their teeth in the music industry in metal bands, the one-man powerhouse behind the moniker Specie11 embraced the limitless opportunities for expression which lie within electronica production.

Their recent single, Jellypus, starts with a pacifically placid exploration of downtempo electronica and jazz before the soaring electronic guitars riff some rock elements into the ambiently epic single, which is just as cinematic as War of the Worlds, with a smorgasbord more tranquillity and beguile. Typically, I hate the phrase ‘it’s a vibe’, but there are few better ways to allude to the mood-driven atmosphere contained within this creatively euphonic emotional journey.

With an air of the 80s oscillating through the mellow instrumental track, the sense of nostalgia becomes a grounding centre of gravity in the intrinsically experimental release, which will be your tour guide on an oceanic odyssey.

Jellypus is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Erick Diaz has launched his seduction-drenched house anthem, Into Me

Posted on 26 May 2023

You can practically taste the ecstasy in the air of the latest single, Into Me, from the artist, poet, author, and music philosopher Erick Diaz.

His definitively distinctive take on house anthems enabled the single released via NOS to unravel as a progressively steamy anthem of debauchery that any producer would be hard-pressed to assimilate. The massive sound resounds around the ingenuity written into every inexplicitly deft drop and build.

The harsh kicks, bass-swathed beats, and monolithic drops all become that little bit more salaciously transcendent through the reprising whispers that drench the dance hit with seduction. I’ve never written this in a music review before, but he’s a massive tease.

Into Me will hit the airwaves on May 26; hear it on SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Ride the electromagnetic waves in Us or Aliens’ latest industrial pop-rock call into the void, Black Hole

Posted on 22 May 2023

Giving us all the dark industrial rock energy of Celldweller and Zeromancer, with a few sharp pop hooks for impaling measure, Us or Aliens’ latest cry into the void, Black Hole, is an existential tour de force.

While the hollow find it hard to find fulfilment in a disenfranchising reality where ennui is as escapable as the cosmic phenomenon which became the metaphorical focus of the single, the pensive will more than get their resonant fill from Black Hole.

Us or Aliens is the solo project from Shawn Kirkpatrick, who has been writing, composing, recording and producing for himself and other artists for the past two decades. In his impressive by any measure career, he has performed in over 500 venues and found the time to become an accomplished guitar teacher and TV composer.

Delve into Black Hole by heading over to SoundCloud.

Review by Amelia Vandergast