Tag: Abstract

Otto Taimela :: Cheap Ingredients (Cudighi)

Taimela isn’t trying to recreate the 90s IDM and drum and bass golden era so much as he’s drawing a line from it to the present, letting those influences inform his melodic instincts without being consumed by them. There’s a lightness to how he carries all of that reference—it never feels like homework, never feels like pastiche. It just sounds like a producer who grew up on the right records and internalized them so completely that they became his own vocabulary.

Boddy | Scanner :: Juxtapositions (DiN)

DiN has built an extensive catalog through precisely these kinds of creative connections, and Juxtapositions stands as a particularly strong example of what can emerge when experienced artists remain genuinely open to one another. There is considerable craft here. Its sophistication lies in the natural way its many elements coexist and transform.

IXRQ :: Form & Fashion EP (SEQ:RUN)

For fans of CPU, Carl Finlow and electro’s wider continuum, IXRQ’s command of the language will be immediately apparent. But this isn’t simply reverence for what has been. These are familiar components arranged with enough curiosity to remind us that electro’s future has never been about inventing the machine. It’s about continuing to find new things for it to say.

Scarper :: Off-Cuts (2014 – 2021) (Plexus)

There’s something particularly satisfying about hearing forgotten tracks recovered, revisited and finally released for others to discover. Off-Cuts (2014–2021) doesn’t feel like a scattered collection of archival material; instead, it comes across as a carefully gathered snapshot of a creative period, proving that these pieces still have plenty to say.

omni causa :: aux4444 pt.1 (mindcolormusic)

A label that kept going, kept releasing, kept refining a shared aesthetic without compromise or concession to trends. aux4444 pt.1 carries all of that history in its drum patterns and melodic builds, and it sounds better for it. This is what underground electronic music looks like when it’s done with genuine conviction over a sustained period of time.