The Minimal Beat of “Sage” by Human Age Allows the Vibrant Melody to Dance Freely

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Human Age, Safe Emergency EP cover (cropped)

The minimalist percussion of “Sage” by Human Age, is an interesting foundation for the flaring, colorful melody to unfold upon. It provides the texture and the momentum of the song while sounding so delicate itself. Like one of those wire frames of large sculptures, the weak nuclear forces without which matter cannot exist. It’s reminiscent of the way Four Tet will hang an extended panoply of sounds and moods on a spindle of rhythm to keep time while modulating that rhythm slightly while the melody and atmospheres take the foreground and dance about and fill in the sonic framework. The melody here feels like taking in a breath and noticing nuances of flavor and texture in your lungs for the first time and the minute diversity of each with every breath with each passage. That the song reflects a psychedelic experience the composer had at Joshua Tree should come as no surprise but it is incidental to the enjoyment of a short song that seems so simple but offers an ever changing array of sonic experience. Listen to “Sage” from Human Age’s Safe Emergency EP and follow the artist at the links below.

soundcloud.com/humanagemusic
open.spotify.com/artist/2Xv8LwqhmKSjRB5K2vCYCV
instagram.com/human__age
https://linktr.ee/HumanAge

Emiji’s “Ambient Trip” Iteration of “Mystical Thoughts” is Like a Cleansing Stream of Tranquil Waters

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Emiji “Mystical Thoughts (Ambient Trip)” cover (cropped)

This “Ambient Trip” iteration of Emiji’s song “Mystical Thoughts” reflects is reflected in the various permutations of the cover art to give a different cast and emphasis on a theme. The geometric artwork suggests Emiji hears the mathematical roots of the sounds and their connection to one another and their relationships and put the track together with the organic flow in mind the way one might model weather systems, the way Ryoji Ikeda has mapped out generative sound that seems to follow no formal logic but whose vectors are explicable through mathematical modeling and representation with a visual component. But without knowing any of this, Emiji’s song can be enjoyed as a blissful, slow moving cascade of soothing sound that flows over your conscience like a tranquil water, cleansing the mind of anxious thoughts. Listen to “Mystical Thoughts (Ambient Trip)” on Soundcloud and follow Emiji at the links provided.

emijimusic.com
facebook.com/emijimusic
instagram.com/emijimusic

Mateo Paz’s Remix of M0narch’s “654” Takes Us On Journey Through Snow Terrain Under Moonlight

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The Best of COOD cover, cropped

This version of “654” is a remix Mateo Paz did for M0narch’s original in October 2018 and is now available on the COOD Music compilation The Best of COOD. It has the structure and mood of progressive trance which tells you little except that the percussion is soft and moves forward with a mechanical precision with the smallest changes evolving over time and that the melodies over the top are ethereal and instilling a chill mood. But this song is reminiscent of late 70s and early 80s Tangerine Dream in suggesting a cinematic counterpart to the music. Something composed as a companion to an emotional journey. The lightly distorted synths speak of passing through snowy terrain under moonlight contemplating an uncertain future but feeling comfortable with the choice to pursue it. Listen to “654” on Soundcloud and look to the links below to purchase The Best of COOD, to follow Mateo Paz and to further explore the COOD catalog and the labels future releases.

Purchase The Best Of COOD
www.beatport.com/release/the-best-of-cood-vol-01/2643968

Mateo Paz
www.twitter.com/mateopazmusic
www.instagram.com/mateopazmusic
www.mateopaz.com
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBykxC6bnfAwhAzZL7wXBQQ
www.soundcloud.com/mateopazmusic

COOD Music
www.soundcloud.com/coodmusic
www.beatport.com/label/cood/68920

Haneke Twins Bring a Broad and Powerful Tonal Range to its Urgent and Harrowing Classic Post-Punk Sound on “Deep”

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Haneke Twins, photo courtesy the artists

Swiss post-punk band Haneke Twins may channel or tap into some obvious musical reference points on its new single “Deep,” like Paul Banks’ rich baritone in the vocals and the driving, melodic bass line that is the hallmark of any post-punk worth listening to. The drumming, though, pushes the headlong urgency of the song and accenting the momentum of the beat with splashes of cymbal like heavy rains. The guitars are cutting and seething like the high end got the boost. This mix of sound allows for the bass, vocals and guitar to occupy distinct frequency ranges giving the track some subtle power. “Deep” may sound like it could have come out in post death rock 1983 but the way the band has arranged where the sounds lie speaks to a knowledge of modern production techniques and the influence of newer music and thus it never really sounds like Haneke Twins are trying out a style du jour. Also, compliments on the name referencing controversial filmmaker Michael Haneke. Listen to “Deep” on YouTube and follow Haneke Twins at the links below.

soundcloud.com/haneke-twins
haneketwins.bandcamp.com/releases
twitter.com/HanekeTwins

Daddy Who’s Hypnotically Looping “Space Jam” is Like Hold Music For Making Reservations at the Restaurant at the End of the Universe

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Daddy Who, image courtesy the artist

Not to be confused with the Quad City DJ’s song of the same name at all, Daddy Who’s “Space Jam” is like a loop of shimmering synth over bursts of ascending horn samples, a downtempo jazz rhythm and vocals that almost come across like voice synthesizer pieces or odd artifacts from pre-recorded announcements processed to fit that perfect tonal and textural moment at the beginning and at the end of the track. Is it a ring tone for an incoming call from another galaxy or hold music for The Restaurant at the End of the Universe. It could work as either because the loop fools you into a sense of generative composition as it makes its way hypnotically into your brain. Listen below and follow Daddy Who at the link provided.

Space Jam by Daddy Who

open.spotify.com/artist/35LuXmFMMue04hCQ48qFpR

“Find Me Out” by Ronjo V Perfectly Fuses Southern Rock With Power Pop

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Ronjo V, photo/image courtesy the artist

If Ronjo V is actually a vanity project led by Ryan Joseph of 5th Street Studios in Austin, Texas then the guy has assembled his own Texan version of Argent Studios because the new single “Find Me Out” is like that glorious power pop that came out of the legendary studio. But if some tasty Southern rock licks were added to the mix. The song begins with a jangle-y figure and like something that could have come out of Memphis garage rock of the past decade with more sophisticated production but same kind of raw melodicism and verve a lot of that music seems to possess. The guitar leads help the song shine with some creative riffing that help to propel the song as much as the spare yet expressive rhythm section. In a lot of music that’s mining the classic rock era there are excessive guitar solos but in embracing that sound all the solos serve the song well and with a diversity of composition that helps keep this song sounding fresh beginning to end. Listen on Soundcloud and follow Ronjo V at the links provided.

soundcloud.com/ronjov
open.spotify.com/artist/2IitCAORDIHEZ8KNWJ8SuS
facebook.com/ronjovmusic
instagram.com/ronjovmusic

DEADBEAR’s “Black Sheep is Meaty” is a Dazzling Whirlwind Dub Downtempo Trip Through Non-Western Music Samples

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DEADBEAR, World Music Market cover (cropped)

Be prepared to go through the gauntlet of rhythms and musical styles to a pounding and evolving beat throughout DEADBEAR’s “Black Sheep Is Meaty.” DEADBEAR’s Nick Donovan sampled eleven different records bought at his local flea market and blended them together with nearly orchestral melodic electronic passages and robust electronic bass so that recordings pressed to vinyl in the 50s and 60s could come to life in a new way to highlight the world as it is and not as defined in reference to Western culture. The track comes from World Music Market due out August 16 (see Bandcamp link below) and across the album you will hear Korean court music, Yemeni and Tibetan folk, Sudanese prayer songs, Syrian dance music and other sounds that might seem like an exotic affectation elsewhere but here the power and vitality of that music is retained if presented outside its original context and format. He profits from sales of World Music Market will go to charities that help integrate refugees into Western communities and itself an example of true multiculturalism as exists in Donovan’s now home city of Berlin where various cultures co-exist without necessarily having to assimilate, which is also the sound of the music on World Music Market. Listen to “Black Sheep is Meaty” on Bandcamp and follow DEADBEAR and this project in particular at the links below.

World Music Market by DEADBEAR

soundcloud.com/deadbearsongs
deadbearsongs.bandcamp.com

Hello Meteor Brings Out the Soulfulness and Fluid Low End of MOLTENO’s Downtempo Environmental Justice Song “Dakota”

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MOLTENO, photo by 10K Mega

The Night Water Mix done by Hello Meteor on MOLTENO’s “Dakota” is so immersive you feel like you’ve walked directly into a dream. The low end gently guides you along like you’re floating through MOLTENO’s narrative about the folly of humanity, or at least corporations and capital generally, in thinking it can control and own any natural resource or land in a larger sense. “Dakota” is an obvious reference to the pipeline and how it was built through native land as if it would have no consequences to the world around or the people who live there. The same mentality applies to so much of how our Western civilization conceives of the natural world and each other. In this song MOLTENO more than suggests the foolishness of the mindset that thinks disasters, natural or otherwise, can be dealt with through a simple transactional process with human currency. Hello Meteor enhanced the lush atmospherics of the original, gave the vocals a more soulful flavor and bathed the track in fluid low end for an entrancing version of the song that sticks with you. Listen to the remix on Spotify and follow MOLTENO at any of the links provided.

moltenomusic.com
soundcloud.com/moltenomusic
open.spotify.com/artist/7rAKOEwi4Wp5NXVmmkwd0n
twitter.com/moltenomusic
facebook.com/moltenomusic
instagram.com/moltenomusic

With Her Song “Red Dust” Kodey Brims Says That Navigating Life With Deep Uncertainty is Not Only Possible But Often Necessary

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Kodey Brims, photo courtesy the artist

Kodey Brims seems to use a reverse chord progression to start off her song “Red Dust” before it shifts into a more conventional progression and it serves to give the sense of yearning and seeking of meaning a sense of being outside normal time. The mixture of atmospheres and earthy instrumentals also gives the song a dynamic contrast that allows Brims’ vocals to shine with a wide-ranging soulfulness that feels like Brims is giving up the process of fully figuring out what her life is about and where it’s going to intuition and forces beyond her control as opposed to the folly of thinking you have everything under control. It could be a melancholic song but it comes off as one of trust and hope in the process and the journey more so than a plan that won’t survive contact with realities and events you do not yet know you will encounter. It’s a song about recognizing the tentative nature of our life’s path more than we often care to admit and also about embracing the positive changes that come along as well. Listen to “Red Dust” on Soundcloud and follow Brims at the links below.

soundcloud.com/kodey-brims
youtube.com/user/KodeyLuci
twitter.com/kodeybrimsmusic
facebook.com/kodeybrimsmusic
instagram.com/kodeybrimsmusic

stanleystanley’s Ambient Single “palace of steam” is a Temporary Autonomous Tranquility Zone

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stanleystanley, photo courtesy the artist

As the title “palace of steam” suggests, Jordan Russell-Hall as stanleystanley has crafted a soundscape that is both hazy and warm. Fog-enshrouded but luminous. The track drifts in and progresses through a series of melodies layered with complimentary drones that serve as a textural backdrop to the palpable sound of crystalline arpeggiation hitting in a circular pattern before fading into horizon like the end of a dream. For those few minutes, though, you find yourself transported to a place that may be described as a temporary autonomous tranquility zone in the titular location and spending some time perhaps leaning back against the walls of said palace and supported by the fleeting physicality of the place while bright tones wash over and though you to cleans out at least a little of the anxiety and built up angst from everyday living. The song can be found on the new stanleystanley EP beside myself out on The Ambient Zone imprint. Listen to “palace of steam” on Bandcamp and follow stanleystanley at any of the links provided.

beside myself by stanleystanley

soundcloud.com/stanleystanleyyyy
bandcamp.com/stanleystanley
twitter.com/stanleystanleyJ
facebook.com/stanleystanleyyyy
instagram.com/jordan_stanleystanley