Keeping us cozy with sincere, surreal, and sublime tunes, nineteen selections shift across many genres and styles, each artist articulates their sound so effortlessly, it’s an essential listening experience.
Downtempo electronics with a relaxed curvature
Maybe we should all just chill. Kahvi Collective makes that happen with Afterthoughts, their year-end showcase of all things downtempo electronics with a relaxed curvature. Setting its target for the heart and soul, this compilation was released just in time for the 2022 holiday season. Keeping us cozy with sincere, surreal, and sublime tunes, nineteen selections shift across many genres and styles, each artist articulates their sound so effortlessly, it’s an essential listening experience.
Faex Optim’s opening piece “Christmas Star,” sets the stage for what’s ahead. Its serene flow and nostalgic flutter is simply elevated to a whole other BOC-laden plateau. Lounge-electronica is in full effect; AVSV dips into synth-infused Detroit grooves with “It’s not there” as the dark-ambient crunch of “Madness of Nigh,” a collaboration between label operator 4T Thieves and Room of Wires, maintains a funky drum rhythm fueling the piece as it launches us into the upper atmosphere. Their second collaboration, “Slow Coma,” ventures through gritty technoid spheres; it is seemingly fuzzy as we make our way through.
A pleasant sojourn to close off 2022 ::
Abdicant presents the final frontier; leading us through an ambient-synth voyage that is utterly engaging and effervescent on “Varroa.” Afterthoughts doesn’t hold back either. The sonic display from such a vast collection of sound sculptors is a pleasant sojourn to close off 2022. “Swan River Leviathan” by Perihelion takes us through uncharted mountain tops—the delicate ambient-glitch and field recordings are easy on the ears as Cognition Delay’s “Sea Change” channels just enough momentum with its slow-motion and minimal-techno shapes and acidic swirl.
There’s a lot to consume on Afterthoughts—don’t consider it to be an actual afterthought, its chilled demeanor can be deceiving if not consumed as a whole. With such an assemblage of tunes and tones, the title track presented by John Louis Kluck, sheds just enough tranquilized light sparks to keep us curious.
Other notable artists that should be mentioned include Brioskj and the lighthearted “Full Anethetized,” Audio Cephlon’s rhythmic sputter on “The Bridges,” Kunds meandering flux on “European Hymn,” Stellaterra’s pseudo-disco electronica on “Hyperactive,” Perihelion’s drifting piano keys on “Swan River Leviathan,” The Last Little Bit and Free Range Vandals’ sparkling ambient swells on “We Float” and “Eve,” respectively, Stellaterra’s wandering “Breath of Life” and their ethereal ambient-techno strands on “Plasmoid,” Leon Purviance’s calming soundtrack on “Blue Hour” running a parallel trajectory with Free Range Vandals’ “Blackest Ocean Waves,” and Faex Optim’s “Trying Time” that is perhaps the most uplifting of the lot with its sentimental melodic threads. We are totally chilled.
Afterthoughts is available on Kahvi Collective. [Site | Bandcamp]
