Author: J. Batista

Ariadne’s Labyrinth :: Endless Corners EP (Adepta Editions)

Endless Corners is a fun EP that takes you on an emotional ride and easily ranks as one of the strongest braindance releases of the summer. For those who grew up on Rephlex, who know the feeling of a perfect hi-hat pattern landing exactly where it should, who understand what it means when an acid line locks into a string arrangement and suddenly everything makes sense, this record is going to hit somewhere deep.

Caural :: Aura (Prism92)

Aura leans more toward the hip-hop beat era than straight IDM, experimental in spirit, with enough left-field nuance that it resists being filed simply as instrumental hip-hop. It’s a document of a producer figuring out his own DNA in real time, two decades before anyone thought to look back and call it influential.

anthéne :: Air Signs (Dronarivm)

Air Signs rests at its distinct sound. Everything is pieced together very well, and all the noises, melodies, and synths are family—they all align track after track. Deschamps has a gift for cohesion. Even when he’s working with degraded loops, reversed recordings, and heavily processed guitar, nothing feels fragmented. Everything belongs.