Posts Tagged ‘downtempo’
Among purveyors of instrumental hip-hop, US West Coast beats, and jazz influenced downtempo, Shigeto is in a category all of his own. Fans of Flying Lotus‘ Brainfeeder catalog (now operated by Ninja Tune over in Europe), with releases by Teebs, Lorn, The Gaslamp Killer and many others, will find his sound fitting neatly on the shelves with sample-based abstract, [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, instrumental hip-hop, jazzy
“You awoke. You were there, among the luminous beings…” Welcome to the magical world of Akara. Landing on this strange small intergalactic system you are welcomed by its inhabitants, celebrating your arrival with songs in an unknown tongue. With Joshua Penman behind the production of psychedelic ambient soundscapes and trippy downtempo rhythms, and Femke Weidema [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, psybient
I had quiet a busy weekend. A late Saturday night party left me stumbling through Sunday, half asleep and tired. At least I could keep my mind happy with this mix from Orangewarrior. Originally subtitled “Bliss Drone Ambient Chill Mix” the two hour mix features a “selection of very ambient tunes that I regularly enjoy [...]
Filed under: Mixes | 2 Comments
Tags: ambient, downtempo
Load up that rubber band gun with a stretched-out bass and snap the trigger on the dropping rhythm – the wobble bubble hip-bop is in the house! The 10th studio album from Dave Tipper, Broken Soul Jamboree, is about to slap you across the face, with its top notch production, acoustically rich other world themes, [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | 1 Comment
Tags: downtempo, glitch, idm, psybient
Cell – Hanging Masses (Ultimae)
Frenchman Alex Scheffer, aka Cell, is an Ultimae regular, having contributed tracks to many of the label’s compilation albums, including the excellent Fahrenheit series. Yet, Hanging Masses is his first album for the label and only his second overall, not counting a couple of notable live releases. I’ve always honed in on Cell’s tracks; he [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | 1 Comment
Tags: ambient, downtempo, psybient
Has Lusine turned almost pop? Well, not quite. If so, then pop music has never sounded so good! But peel back the vocals from the foreground, appearing on a few tracks by Vilja Larjosto and Caitlin Sherman, and we are left with the good old electronic sound of Lusine, known for his lush ambient soundscapes, [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | 2 Comments
Tags: downtempo, idm, leftfield
It’s not so uncommon to see classically trained pianists turn to electronic music production. After all, it’s not a huge stretch from the piano to a midi controller keyboard. It’s considerably rarer to find producers who are actually cellists and violinists by training. But Rena Jones is certainly not your garden variety producer. She’s a [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, modern classical
In terms of technique, Jamie Watts, the man behind KiloWatts, is an extremely accomplished producer; he knows how to make music that sounds great. His last full-length album, Ground State, released on Evan Bartholomew’s Native State Records, stood out for its fresh and chunky sound. It featured a rolling mid-tempo groove, using mostly an acoustic [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: ambient, downtempo, electronic, psybient
Plastik Joy – 3:03 (n5MD)
Plastik Joy is an intriguing duo, if only for the fact that one of them, Cristiano Nicolini, is from Italy and the other, Fannar Ásgrímsson, is Icelandic. You can’t get any closer to “fire and ice” than that. The two met while studying audio engineering in Barcelona and began working together on a couple of [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, electronic, idm
Out of a small label in the UK, run by fabulous Miss Alice and Andrew Hargreaves, comes a beautifully crafted release from The Archivist. This is only the second release for the label, but OK, it’s got my attention! At first, I was a bit surprised at the intricate production behind the album, The Keeper [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | 3 Comments
Tags: downtempo, electronica, idm
When Phylum Sinter sent me a promotional copy of his digital release on En:peg Digital, little did he know that I was already a fan. And how could I not be, when his music tickles my spine with triggered percussion jittering across beautiful harmonic atmospherics and refined melodies. Like in Telefon Tel Aviv‘s Fahrenheit Fair [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | 1 Comment
Tags: downtempo, electronica, idm
Humans Under Visual Atmospheres (H.U.V.A. Network) is back with a long awaited sophomore release on Lyon (France) based Ultimae Records. Before I cover the album, it’s worth it to pause and deconstruct this group. H.U.V.A is a duo comprised of Magnus Birgersson and Vincent Villuis. Birgersson is none other than Solar Fields, a regular on [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: atmospheric, downtempo, psybient
Evan Bartholomew drops another album for our hungry ears. This time, his groovy downtempo sonic treatments are released under his renowned moniker, Bluetech. For The Divine Invasion, Bartholomew puts aside his ambient and modern classical work under his real name, and returns to his tight IDM , digital funk, and tech-dub beats with a touch [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, psybient
When I posted the Headphone Commute’s Best of 2008 list, I received a lot of emails that amounted to “You forgot Lulu Rouge!” What? Lulu who? Yes, I’m sure there was an album that I missed in 2008 (I missed hundreds of them). But with enough pokes in the same direction I was tempted to [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, dub, dub techno
The latest release from Kaya Project titled, …And So It Goes, is full of spiritual and ethnic elements, multi-lingual vocals, and world infused beats. This is a third full length album from a collaborative duo of Sebastian James Taylor and Natasha Chamberlain. Incorporating digital production design with organic instruments, Taylor and Chamberlain create a beautiful [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, dub, psybient
Ni Prédateur Ni Proie is a complete theatrical performance packaged into twelve sketches on a disk. Strings tune up. A gong rings. A voice pleads with a shadow. Tension builds up. Industrial percussion kicks in. What follows is a combination of experimental neo-classical and avant-garde rhythmic technoid, curated with ethnic organic beats and acoustic orchestral [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: avant-garde, downtempo, rhythmic noise
Neo Ouija is BACK! That’s right kiddies. After closing its doors in 2005, the Devon (England) based label originally started by Lee Norris (Metamatics), has re-opened its doors, and is now managed by Martin Hirsch (aka Deer and Random Noise Productions). Propelling many electronic musicians to fame, Neo Ouija is responsible for much output from [...]
Filed under: Compilations | Leave a Comment
Tags: downtempo, dub techno, idm, tech house
This is obviously an amazing record to start off my Random Vinyl of the Week adventure, as I dig through my dusty archives. Released in 1996, Dead Cities was Garry Cobain and Brian Dougans’ fourth full length album as The Future Sound of London. Dead Cities was that very last record and then there was [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews, Flashbacks | 2 Comments
Tags: dark ambient, downtempo, electronica
Integral – Rise (Tympanik)
Another excellent surprise coming out of Tympanik. And that’s twice in one year. First I was completely blown away by Subheim‘s Approach. And now another brand new group, Integral, hitting me hard out of nowhere with their debut, Rise. The duo behind Integral are Germany based David Rotter and Rafael Milatz. Their sound is dark, [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | Leave a Comment
Tags: dark idm, downtempo, idm, psybient
Getting back to melodic electronica, I turn my attention to Andrew Johnson and Craig Tattersall, who go by the name of The Remote Viewer. Their previous releases include two albums on 555 Recordings and three LPs on one of my favorite labels, City Centre Offices. This time, the duo releases their latest album, I Can’t [...]
Filed under: Album Reviews | 2 Comments
Tags: ambient, downtempo, modern classical
Latest Mixes and Podcasts
It’s all about being social
Floyd Kelley III – Microsound
Aria Rostami - Headphone Commute
