After playing in punk rock bands and dabbling with prog rock, the artist behind the sandbender moniker turned his noise-enthusiast inclinations to orchestrating ambiently psychedelic dub electronica.
His sophomore album, hiding moon, was officially released on April 2nd. The standout single, Apostrophes, is an opulently transcendent ode to the 90s era of electronica, with influences from Orbital, Leftfield and The Crystal Method all drifting fleetingly into the single that is also touched by the style of the noisier outfits Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Infected Mushroom.
The art of immersive ambience is one that few artists and producers will ever truly master; only a handful of electronica artists possess the ability to entrance the listener. It is safe to say that sandbender is one of the most visionary amongst them. The beguiling complexities within Apostrophes make the 6-minute duration a capsule of catharsis.
Hiding moon is now available to stream in full via SoundCloud. For more info, head over to sandbender’s official website.
Review by Amelia Vandergast