POST CATEGORY : Ambient

Mindchatter – ‘Kerosene’

NYC producer Mindchatter has been dazzling us with genre-hoping aural delights; ‘Trippy’, ‘Blood’ & ‘Tough as Nails’.

Mindchatter is back with a similarly seductive single ‘Kerosene’. It is a sombre, slumbering sound that gentle meanders through a rich and textured soundscape marked by a bittersweet feel as hushed tones hover above the shimmers of synth and soft, popping beats. There is a tension and unease at play here but it is nicely cushioned by a sweetness and charm, creating a dremay and effortlessly chilled musical atmosphere. ‘Kerosene’ has a devastatingly powerful magnetism and becomes increasingly addictive and alluring with each and every listen.

Listen to ‘Kerosene’ below and if you like what you hear, you can check out previous single here too.

Menik – ‘Long Distance’

Menik is a producer with a preference for music that is colourful, ambient, melodic and driving, and drawing inspiration from everything from blues, rock and hip hop, jazz, house and techno, and everything in between.

Menik introduced himself with the seductive, dreamy and wide-eyed ‘Brothers’ and having released debut album Story Time this month, he’s lifted another single from it ‘Long Distance’ unfurls with poise, shuffling along a soft and seductive hip hop inspired beat. Dripping with melody, it slinks on its merry mellow way through a sea of soothing sounds and dreamy undulations only to be shaken from its slumber by intermittent bouts of frazzled electronics. It is warm and washed-out, chilled and soothing but the beatwork entrusts it is not only transfixing but also infectious.

‘Long Distance’ is below and if you like what you hear, you can listen to the entire album here.

Orla – ‘Breathe’

Orla is an 18 year old Irish musician and producer from Co Meath who has a preference for dreamy, elegant and atmospheric sounds; flashed with exquisite finesse on her debut single ‘dream’.

With new single ‘Breathe’, Orla sticks to this familiar formula for ambient, atmospheric and downtempo sounds. ‘Breathe’ is an elegant, shimmering delight with bags of charm. Striking a delicate and subtle balance between electronic elements with organic instrumentation as lush flowing synths, jovial beat and chiming guitar converge with an entrancing bass line. Subtle and unassuming, warm and alluring, dreamy and intoxicating; ‘Breathe’ will make an indelible mark your soul, and leave you all the better for it.

Listen to ‘Breathe’ and it’s shimmering majesty below:

Menik – ‘Brothers’

Menik is a producer with a preference for music that is colourful, ambient, melodic and driving, and drawing inspiration from everything from blues, rock and hip hop, jazz, house and techno, and everything in between.

Menik is plotting the release of his debut album Story Time, which features field recordings from milestone stages of his life. The latest single ‘Brothers’ gazes backward, inspired by Menik’s short time spent growing up in San Francisco. It is elegant, dreamy and wide-eyed, unfurling with a steady, soft and seductive beat, gentle guitar strum ‘Brothers’ intoxicates and woos with a brimming sense of optimism. Soothing soundscapes and dreamy lullabies flow into wave upon wave of gentle fuzz lapping from the side, introducing a next level calm and tranquillity akin to floating among the clouds. So much so that even the glistening riff midway through cannot offset the overwhelming sense of snug dreaminess.

It is blissful, enthralling and all-consuming track; listen to ‘Brothers’ below:

Kobina – ‘Does It feat. The Sei’

Kobina is an electronic producer from Dublin now residing in Amsterdam and over the past month or so, he’s been slowly teasing material from his 4 Poems EP, which is out now.

Capturing a period where he fell out love with music, ceasing to create and produce, ‘The 4 Poems’ referred to in the title are testament to that period. Kobina shared these poems with four separate vocalists – Bronte, Participant, The Sei & Obskur Mond – serving as the foundation for a fruitful collaboration, resulting in an elegant, slowly unfurling electronic excursion imbued with rich sounds, touching ambience and heartfelt emotion.

Personal favourite and example of what expect from the EP is the stunning ‘Does It feat. The Sei’. It is an elegant and cinematic cut, and one that remains distinctly intimate even as layer upon layer of rich sound enters the fray. Synths creep in as the song progresses, softly twinkling and fizzing by in the background adding texture, warmth and emotion. It is however, the piano chords and The Sei’s (Stacey Gill) vocals that serves as the emotive bedrock from which all else is built. This is a rich, compelling and deeply moving track of beauty, fragility and heartfelt emotion – utterly stunning.

Listen to ‘Does It feat. The Sei’ below – and you can check out there entire EP here too.

Gadget and the Cloud – ‘Quiescence’

Gadget and the Cloud is the moniker of Cork-based producer Kelly Doherty who has a clear preference for the experimental, pushing electronic sounds into ever more interesting settings.

The Cork native emerged on our radar in 2017 with singles ‘And I Told You Something True’ and ‘3600 Seconds’, and followed those with debut album Songs for Sad People to Dance To last year, and Doherty is back with a new track called ‘Quiescence’. Forming part of a compilation on Dublin-based Bandcloud, the track is a swirling blend of textures and soundscapes, with touches of ambient and drone. Opening with a deep bass hum, ‘Quiescence’ seeps to the foreground filling all available space with sound and feeling. It simmers with a rich emotive allure as gentle crisp, focused beats propel us forward though a world of lush synths, warm textures and dreamy vibes. While it is exquisite and gently ambient, it is not one of carefree abandon as the space afforded to reflective mood allows for contemplation and a darker tone and mood. It is a majestic track, its progression feels organic and the emotion real – exquisite.

Listen to ‘Quiescence’ below – if you like what you hear, why don’t you check out Songs for Sad People to Dance To from last year? It can be found here.

Bibi Club – ‘La Plage’

Bibi Club are Montreal duo Adèle Trottier-Rivard and Nicolas Basque, who together create hypnotic and elegant lo-fi synth-pop.

The pair’s debut single is ‘La Plage’ (“the beach” in French) and it is something rather special indeed. It is a subtle, spellbinding and lush sea of textures, soft-edged synths, blissed out tones and flourishes of dreamy psych-folk. ‘La Plage’ bubbles along a rippling rhythm as guitars chime, synths twinkle and cascading cosmic electronic tones combine with a lapping groove creating a lush and alluring elixir, and one perfect for Trottier-Rivard’s smooth, light and mellifluous voice seems to breeze above, leaving us utterly powerless to resist.

A magnificent, hypnotic and elegant debut. Listen below:

Three Thieves – ‘Ivory Coast ft. Ruby Atlanta’

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Three Thieves is the moniker of Cardiff based producer, Tom Clugston, who specialises in a spellbinding synthesis of sound embracing all things hip hop, electronica, drum & bass and a wealth of other electronic beat driven genres.

Clugston’s beat wizardry and melodic, fluid electronic compositions was acutely evident on late 2016’s superb, Zero Hour EP. Three Thieves has kicked off 2019 on a high with brand new single ‘Ivory Coast’ featuring Welsh vocalist Ruby Atlanta. Shifting along a procession of soft, shuffling beats with a gentle swaggering groove, ‘Ivory Coast’ radiates an aura of uplifting positivity and warm vibes. Melodic, fluid and mellow, the single’s beauty is augmented by the stunning, soulful vocals of Ruby Atlanta. An infectious, melodic little earworm – you’ll have it on constant rotation for sure.

Listen to ‘Ivory Coast ft. Ruby Atlanta’ below now:

Bels Lontano – Kind Decade EP

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Bels Lontano is an electronic music project from US-based composer and producer Bret Bohman.

Following on from his stellar introductory single ‘At the Horizon’, Bohman has released debut EP Kind Decade. Comprised of six tracks – incl. ‘At the Horizon’ – it explores concepts of liminal spaces, natural beauty, therapy and personal growth, while taking inspiration from a wide variety of musical and non-musical sources – love, anxiety, beats and ambience.

‘At the Horizon’ finds a sweet spot between beauty and terror, with a steady bass thump and crunchy beats, it carves a way through the ambient atmospheric soundscape and silky melody. Glistening strings mingle with glitchy sounds as the intensity grows; it is elegant but with a foreboding sense of mild eeriness never far away. ‘Tumbleweed’ is cut from a similar, if somewhat more dancefloor ready, ominous cloth as it booms along big and glitchy beats the downtempo ambient sounds and chugging intensity of techno collide to create something both beautiful and fierce. ‘Florid Entanglements’ fizzes by with fluidity and bursts with rushes of euphoria while beats pop and whizz frantically in a sea of tranquil sounds, airy tones and glacial chimes. Penultimate track ‘Citadel’ opens with slowly evolving atmospherics which leads through an epic buildup into heavy, glitchy sounds with chopped vocals flowing over a pulsing bassline and crashing beats. Kind Decade is an aural delight of elegance, ambience and precision beats – a beautiful bout of electronic escapism.

You can sample some choice cuts below or you can find the entire EP here.

Fred und Luna – ‘Nichtmusikalische Stadt Unter Schritten’

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Fred und Luna is the curious project of German musician, lector, poet and photo/video maker Rainer Buchmüller.

“Fred und Luna” are two mannequins residing in a fashion boutique in Karlsruhe, Germany, and they serve as Buchmüller’s muse – an usual backstory, yes but a fruitful one for his self-style “elektrokraut” sounds.

Having previously released the EP ‘Glück Auf’ and debut album ‘Im Klanggarten’ in 2017, Buchmüller is primed to release the project’s second album ‘Im Tiefenrausch’. Ahead of the album, we’ve been presented with taster track ‘Nichtmusikalische Stadt Unter Schritten’ – a perfect exhibition of his “elektrokraut” taking parts electronica and Krautrock, to fashion them together. Shifting along a steady, transfixing winding groove, it is overlaid with cool, chiming chords, laid-back vocals and a funky sense of melody. With its combination of repetitive rhythms, beautiful melodies, electronic soundscapes, irresistible rhythms and dreamy atmospheres, the dusky vibed ‘Nichtmusikalische Stadt Unter Schritten’ wields a rather seductive, spellbinding charm.

Listen to ‘Nichtmusikalische Stadt Unter Schritten’ below now and keep an eye out for the new record coming on February 1st.