Warp Records – Queen City Sounds and Art

Vitesse X Gives Us a Feeling of Ever Present and Intimate Immediacy on Electronic Dream Pop Song “Right Now”

“Right Now” finds Vitesse X expanding beyond the dreamy dance floor synth pop-infused drum and bass of Us Ephermeral. In the music video she frolics at the beach at various times of the day, morning, evening and in the full light of the sun. And the song has dusky vocals, touches of bright, dappled, guitar shimmer and effervescent electronic echoes. In this way, Vitesse X stimulates different parts of the brain and the music has the same refreshing quality that early hyper pop, witch house and chillwave had in dipping into retro sounds and employing them into modern production aesthetics. But Vitesse X uses these ideas to craft a modern update on dream pop as something that has absorbed the otherworldly electronic sensibilities of IDM artists on the Warp imprint and the likes of early Crystal Castles. “Right Now” is a song that lives up to its name by giving the listener an ever present feeling of vulnerable immediacy. Watch the video for “Right Now” on YouTube and connect with Vitesse X at the links below.

Vitesse X on TikTok

Vitesse X on Twitter

Vitesse X on Instagram

Antics & Collectables’ Debut Single “Breaking Point” is an IDM Infused Downtempo Catharsis of Ambient Anxiety

“Breaking Point” is the debut single by the Antics & Collectables collective based out of London. With the collage of imagery in the music video the downtempo IDM flavor of the track hits like something that emerged out of late 90s alternative hip-hop, Warp Records releases, Air’s abstract downtempo jazz funk pop and Dilla’s most haunted left field experiments in pure mood sculpting. There is a great use of tension building and release and informal rhythm and structure that really works for a song that seems to be about someone who feels like they’ve been on this ascent of building anxiety and anticipation for some relief from that swell of energy, like being on a constant simmer and not quite a boil in the psyche. The dark melodies, the rising arpeggios of tone, the sweeps of white noise and low end pulse, the soft yet jittery percussion have a textural as well as musical quality that the abstract and dreamlike imagery of the video somehow captures perfectly. Like you’re stuck in a quietly menacing dream waiting to wake up but not quite being able to reach into the light of consciousness. There’s something beautiful about this sustained feeling as that prolonged wait finds some release as the song ascends and descends in the roller coaster of its tonal and emotional progression to the end. Watch the video for “Breaking Point” on YouTube and follow Antics & Collectables on Instagram.

“Over an Old Road” by The Bodies Obtained is Like Library Music Crafted by Dali’s Melted Clocks Gone Sentient

Sustained, paradoxically gentle bursts of bright cycling melodic tones fused with the sound of bell tones counting time in a drawn out shimmer are the backbone of “Over an Old Road” by The Bodies Obtained. Sure maybe the project takes its name from a line from Joy Division’s “Day of the Lords” but this track sounds like some demented, broken library music sourced mash-up that brings together distorted haze and sharp, metallic sounds like music you might imagine an animated version of Dali’s melted clocks to make if they had somehow attained sentience the way Voyager I did in Star Trek: The Motion Picture. It’s strange stuff that wouldn’t be out of place on Warp Records and fans of that label’s more challenging outer edge stuff should give this song a try. Listen to “Over an Old Road” on Spotify and follow The Bodies Obtained on Soundcloud.