Experimental Electronic Music
Pentagrams Of Discordia seem to vaporize sound itself, blending traces of past, present, and future until their downtempo worlds begin to intertwine. Beats become memories, melodies become distant signals, and atmosphere takes over as the guiding force.
Each Monolake release is, of course, sui generis with a context and sound never to recur, but Interstate is unique in its way—document of a vital musical and cultural moment capturing paradigm shifts in (pre-)millennial music production; its deep textured electronics and ever-morphing cyber-rhythms a snapshot of two phonauts boundary-surfing with then cutting edge tech, causing ripples that became waves that would break over the ’00s and beyond.
Kine 3 is a newer sound built off the classic. Roel Funcken has described the Kine series as emerging from a need to process a large body of work—dividing material into categories, finding what felt raw and process-driven and unfinished in the best possible way.
Adepta Editions have found a kindred spirit in Daniel Pringle. The label’s pursuit of emotive electronics with contortionist rhythms is part of The Jaffa Kid’s DNA. A superb pairing of pieces, two that can ignite the right floor as well as giving the mind space to roam.
Mind Maps 7 stands as another richly rewarding chapter in an extraordinary body of electronic music—one that continues to push gently at the boundaries of ambient, downtempo and sample-based composition without ever losing its sense of warmth or wonder. Long may these maps continue to unfold, pointing listeners towards the kind of electronic music that still feels capable of surprising, transporting and quietly reshaping the landscape around it.
Biogenes Resources is a testament to what a new generation of Russian electronic artists would do. The hope and whimsy that permeate the album hark back to a time of potential, where possibilities stretched across the many time zones of the vast Eastern land. In this reproduction, using the original MIDI files, the past reminds us of both the preciousness of our freedom of expression and that such expression can never be stifled.
Rooted in tranquil flora and fauna, mōshonsensu captivates not only through dissolving ambient currents, but also downtempo fragments, distant voices, and darker tendrils that surface in subtle, measured movements
29526 is a return under another name and, at the same time, a departure. LoMo delivers to Neo Ouija an album capable of conversing with the ambient techno tradition and with the more introspective sensibility of IDM, sustained by writing that is lucid, visionary and deeply musical.
There is a sense of parring back with The Night Album. Electronic elements are present, but they are employed subtly and without over elaboration. Instead, it is Dobson’s own interaction with string and wind that is returned to with a renewed impetus and vigor. Captivatingly understated, Digitonal captures the glory of stopping and considering those forgotten sounds. An audio salve in an all too loud world.
The finest quality of Ladybug 1 comes from its ability to treat dub as an art of emotional memory. Each return of the theme seems to erase something and make it more vivid at the same time. In the leaner versions, rhythm becomes a heavy step through smoke, reverbs widen like liquid metal, silences speak with the same intensity as the impacts.
EPROM’s Memory Rites distills his unmistakable approach to sound design into an accessible new plugin format, giving producers a direct entry point into one of electronic music’s most influential sonic worlds.
