Keiss magically appears again this year to lighten our moods building on his traditional downtempo approach with Lamps And Bedroom, hitting all the right spots when it comes to selecting a chilled and relaxing album to finally say goodbye to those colder months.
The UK has successfully transitioned from rubbish to not-so-rubbish for the four-day annual warm period we call summer, and along comes the kind of album that’s just begging to be played at sunny gatherings and laid-back outdoor events. Following up from 2016 and 2018 releases The Breath and Tau Ceti respectively, Keiss magically appears again this year to lighten our moods building on his traditional downtempo approach with Lamps And Bedroom, hitting all the right spots when it comes to selecting a chilled and relaxing album to finally say goodbye to those colder months.
A thoroughly sedating affair from start to finish, Keiss places real importance on wispy reverb, layered complex melodies and well-placed bass for a signature sound that carries through the entire 53 minutes. Starting off with “Signature,” quite thelassic with delayed and ghost-like samples leading into a powerful bass-line that carries you the rest of the way. The downtempo ambience displayed here immediately continues with the incredible chill piece “Unharvested Toys.” The tracks, albeit quite separate in their beginnings and ends, merge into each other very well and there’s nothing jarring about their transitions—everything belongs next to each other.
Happy places abound, “Warm Lights” presents a sinister undertone thanks to some really interesting sub-bass. It’s so low that you’re likely to perceive it as dissonant and it makes it uneasy in the best of ways. There’s some really unique tracks here too. “Tungsten Spiral” has a slow and measured pace that gives way to a bold half-bar low end phrase that sets up the second half perfectly, and “Secret Under The Pillow” is just pure freaky—its noise and sound design reminiscent of Stars Of The Lid are powerful and lead to interesting thoughts, truly a favourite. And a personal highlight has to be “Nonexistent Sister.” It’s so drastic from the rest of the album but also fits in perfectly—an almost beatless foray with perfect layering and crescendo in all the right places.
Overall, Lamps And Bedroom is a strong addition to the Touched Music catalogue and will fit in nicely into an ambient collection for easy listening.
Lamps And Bedroom is available on Touched Music.
