Premiere: Lugh ‘Skototrope’
For his debut EP on emerging art and music collective C.A.N.V.A.S. Berlin-based, west of Ireland native artist Lugh treads the line between lush ambience and impactful – and at times harrowing – sound design.
Premiere: KAJA ‘Small Desire’
Following last year’s debut, ‘Womb Echo’, Malmö-based KAJA AKA John Cowie is set to release his new EP ‘Silent Age’ via RITE this Friday 1st June.
DJ Mag Podcast 90: Matt Karmil
Music has been saving Matt Karmil’s life since he was a child. Spending much of his early adolescence debilitated by illness – which would later be diagnosed as Epstein-Barr virus – many of his formative years were spent in near isolation. Distanced from peers, from school and from most of the things that make a childhood “normal”, the Wiltshire-born kid turned to music and learning guitar for companionship in the face of physical and mental unwellness. He hasn’t looked back since.
Developing an expansive taste from an early age, Karmil fell in love with everything form Nirvana and blues to classic rave tapes and Musique Concrète. His longstanding love of ambient music in particular can be found everywhere in his granular, dusty, atmospheric back catalog, and even more so now on ‘Will’. ‘Sharehold’ hovers on a dense, smoky cloud of enveloping sound, its melody breaking through like sunbeams through smog at distanced interludes.
Premiere: Graintable ‘Atlantis'
Oregon’s Graintable AKA James Cooke is set to release his debut LP, ‘Herons’, on London’s terrific Ransom Note Records next week. A lush, beautifully textured album in the vein of contemporaries Steve Hauschildt and Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith, Cooke’s approach to ambience, energy and electronics is nothing short of stunning.
On ‘Atlantis’ – premiering below – swirling arpggios lift the listener from whatever foggy mental mire they’re in to a place of absolute clarity and space, the scope and space of the piece acting like a tonic for woozy souls.
Underworld share beautiful new track, ‘Brilliant Yes That Would Be': Listen
Legendary UK electronic duo Underworld have shared a new track. ‘Brilliant Yes That Would Be' is a sombre, ambient affair full of lush keys and lamenting melodies.
In March this year, the duo played in Reykjavik, Iceland for the first time since 1994 and were inspired by the landscape and atmosphere of the area. This track is the product of that influence.
The track comes paired with a hypnotic visual accompaniment directed by Simon Taylor.
Check out the track and video below.
Fresh Kicks 63: Astrid Sonne
Danish experimental electronic artist Astrid Sonne released her debut album ‘Human Lines’ in February via Copenhagen-based label Escho. A classically trained musician and composer, ‘Human Lines’ found Sonne venturing into complex, otherworldly territory, fusing technical prowess with an exploratory sensibility, crafting an album which blended intense synth bass stabs and throbs with gripping melodies and rich textures.
Premiere: Paddy Mulcahy ‘You Could Walk Across The Shannon’
Paddy Mulcahy may be based in Montreal now, but his new single ‘You Could Walk Across The Shannon’ was inspired by the river of his home-city of Limerick, Ireland.
Lifted from his new ‘From Water’ EP on Phases Records, ‘You Could Walk Across The Shannon’ is a warm, synth led gem that invokes the likes of Tangerine Dream, Nils Frahm and Four Tet’s more cinematic, ambient moments. Following from his stunning 2017 LP ‘The Words She Said’, Mulcahy’s two decades of musicianship are reflected in the consideration and patience in this composition.
Premiere: Bob Holroyd 'Longing'
You may best know Bob Holroyd for his 1994 percussive classic ‘African Drug’ and its subsequent club-friendly remixes by the likes of Four Tet and Coldcut. But the longstanding, composer’s influence runs much deeper than that.
As a torchbearer for minimalism, ambience and sound design fused with traditional sounds from around the globe, Holroyd’s influence has stretched across the musical landscape with every genre blending release. On his forthcoming album ‘The Cage’ though, Holroyd is looking inward.
Dax J preps second album 'Offending Public Morality'
Dax J has revealed details of his new album 'Offending Public Morality', which drops 6th April via his forward-thinking imprint, Monnom Black.
Three years on from debut LP 'Shades Of Black', the Berlin-based Londoner returns with a 14-track arsenal of pummelling techno, cutting-edge EBM, junglist mayhem and thought-provoking ambient works, which aim to "confront 'public morality'."
Midland shares new mix as free download: LISTEN
Midland, whose 'Fabriclive 94' release made our Top 10 Compilations of 2017 list, has shared a new mix, and better yet he's enabled downloads so you can take it home for keeps.
Entitled 'As The City Sleeps', the hour-long effort is a beautifully lush journey into opiate soundscapes that's pretty much the perfect wakeup for anyone struggling with January's cold mornings.
