Browsing Tag

Ambient Electronica

Michael Kanyongolo – Dreams: Meet Your New Sonic Sandman

Posted on 17 August 2022

With an ethereally dystopic chill that creeps in straight from the intro, the Brooklyn, NY-residing electronic music producer, Michael Kanyongolo’s latest score, Dreams, constructs a biometrically ambient world you can drift into for a multifaceted sensory experience.

By building his tracks from samples, midi instruments and live playing, his sonic signature became one marked in stylistic fluidity, textural juxtapositions, and otherworldly atmosphere.

The fact that he’s still in college should be enough to make Hans Zimmer shiver with competitive fear. Kanyongolo is so much more than your average ambience peddler; he’s got the tenacity of an acclaimed composer in the making.

Dreams is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Take Graffiti Welfare’s lead in the soporifically ambient soundscape, Just Follow

Posted on 14 June 2022

Take Graffiti Welfare’s lead in their latest blip of transiently therapeutic bliss, Just Follow. The alternative artist takes the cosmic pop trend deeper into space than Bowie ever dared through a psychedelically smooth lens for the ultimate meditative effect.

The inventive samples lend themselves to the Avant-Garde nature of the release, while the dreamy, almost depersonalised, vocals aid the soporific effect of the atmospheric ambience.

As someone who grew up on a steady diet of Shoegaze records and was exposed to David Lynch soundtracks, I can safely say that Graffiti Welfare’s aptitude for artful electronica and cinematic gravitas is unmatched by most.

Just Follow is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Supercoastal brought us back to nature with her electronic intersection between art and music, Botanical Fanatical

Posted on 27 May 2022

One of the freshest names on LA’s electronica scene, Supercoastal, is fresh from the release of her debut album, Blue Noise, which converges as a hypnotic intersection between naturalistic art and music.

The standout single, Botanical Fanatical, starts as an ethereally light feat of trickling ambience before the beats kick in and transform the soundscape into a synesthesia-triggering downtempo exploration of melody. If any new summer release stands leagues apart from the rest, it’s Botanical Fanatical; Supercoastal evidently got off on the right foot with her debut, and we can’t wait for the next installation of artful aural catharsis.

Botanical Fanatical is now available to stream on Spotify, along with the rest of the debut album, Blue Noise.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Sandbender – Apostrophes: Soul-Sating Ambient Psy Noise

Posted on 28 April 2022

After playing in punk rock bands and dabbling with prog rock, the artist behind the sandbender moniker turned his noise-enthusiast inclinations to orchestrating ambiently psychedelic dub electronica.

His sophomore album, hiding moon, was officially released on April 2nd. The standout single, Apostrophes, is an opulently transcendent ode to the 90s era of electronica, with influences from Orbital, Leftfield and The Crystal Method all drifting fleetingly into the single that is also touched by the style of the noisier outfits Squarepusher, Aphex Twin and Infected Mushroom.

The art of immersive ambience is one that few artists and producers will ever truly master; only a handful of electronica artists possess the ability to entrance the listener. It is safe to say that sandbender is one of the most visionary amongst them. The beguiling complexities within Apostrophes make the 6-minute duration a capsule of catharsis.

Hiding moon is now available to stream in full via SoundCloud. For more info, head over to sandbender’s official website.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Take a Celestial Trip with Timothy and the Apocalypse’s ‘The Ethereal Event’

Posted on 10 April 2022

Timothy and the Apocalypse’s latest single, The Ethereal Event, is a delicious cocktail of spacey synths, epic sci-fi-enabled transcendence, trip-hop breakbeats, and artful gravitas.

Despite the lush textures and endlessly ascending chord progressions, there are the Australian artist and producer’s signature dystopic motifs that bring gravity into this elevated, genre-hopping release. And notably, we’re not the only ones fixated on the artist’s sound. With thousands of monthly Spotify listeners, it is clear that Timothy and the Apocalypse carries the catharsis and escapism that is in high demand in his production style. We’re stoked to hear him back on trippy and Avant-Garde form after he infatuated us with his Lynchian feat of electronica, The Mindful Cherub.

You can experience The Ethereal Event for yourselves by heading over to Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Neofix star rove in their alt ambient electronica single, Perseverance

Posted on 21 March 2022

What Elon Musk is to the tech world, Neofix is to the airwaves with their latest single, Perseverance. The entire beat is constructed by samples from Mars in the alt-indie electronica single, which is glazed in an interstellar sonic beguile.

With the positivity that shines through the lyrics as much as the effortlessly outreaching ethereal vocals, it finally feels like we’ve got a natural progression from Bowie that deserves to be equally as revered for their ingenuity.

Perseverance isn’t your average earworm, but the vocal hooks of “giving in is not the same of giving up” will linger for long after this ambiently unforgettable release has faded to a close.

If anyone is handing out awards for the best music video of 2022, Neofix deserves to pick them up for their video, which allows you to imagine what Morph would have looked like if the creators dropped acid before putting him into motion. You can check out the highly investable stop motion video, which premiered on March 11th, via YouTube.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Feel the transcendent calm in Arbo x Linzi Clark’s euphoria-heady feat of electronica, Balancing Act

Posted on 12 March 2022
Arbo

After winning over a significant proportion of the Scottish population with her debut single, All I Have Now, the Paisley singer-songwriter, Linzi Clark, collaborated with a fellow local artist and producer, Arbo, for her stylishly sublime sophomore release, Balancing Act.

The arty and ethereal feat of electronic trip-hop, which was remixed by Arbo, is a transcendent triumph of up-vibe electronica that allows the shimmering melodies to speak to you on a soulful and primal level. Sonically, Linzi Clark’s inspirations include Four Tet, Juliana Barwick and Bonobo. Lyrically, she takes influence from the icons Joni Mitchell and Regina Spektor. With that combination, alchemy was always a guarantee. Especially with Arbo’s arrestive percussion-heavy ambient sound that we hope to hear plenty more of. Quite notably Arbo and Clark are an unstoppable ambient electro force.

Check out Linzi Clark on Facebook and Instagram, or check out the ventures of Arbo on Facebook and Instagram.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

Get your catharsis fix with Dawn Shy’s debut ambient electronica single, Of Morning

Posted on 1 March 2022

Of Morning is the debut single from the up-and-coming solo artist Dawn Shy (Charlie Howson). The trippy downtempo electronica mix lets the drumbeats kick under the echoey, chamber-y reverb that makes Of Morning such an indulgent aural dive. Especially with the sporadic vocal samples that amplify the haunting nature Of Morning. Little more is said than the repetition of “I promised you”, but the timbre of the instrumentals that flit between light and dark textures more than gives the context.

Ambient producers have their work cut out for them when it comes to establishing themselves in any given scene. Dawn Shy succeeded nonetheless, thanks to his impeccable sense of timing, command of cathartic progressions and ability to reflect emotion through melody. His solo project may have been born through the end of uni boredom, but he is definitively one to watch

Of Morning is now available to stream on Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

mild gets colourfully elemental in his latest lo-fi house mix, blue snow

Posted on 23 February 2022

The lo-fi house legend in the making, mild, has delivered yet another absorbing soundscape with his latest vibe-packed release, blue snow. Despite the name and the deep azure textures, there is a warming ambience to the production from the 21-year-old producer who has been making major waves on lo-fi house playlists since making his debut in 2021.

Right from the first hit, you get the sense that mild produces his mixes with the listeners’ vibes and need in mind. He knows exactly how to feed the vibrant energy, even with a slower tempo and his organic yet sophisticated approach to production. We can’t wait to hear the soulful electronic grooves that follow.

blue snow is now available to stream via Spotify.

Review by Amelia Vandergast

OXYG3N introduces us to the ‘New Electric’ in his cinematic electronica single

Posted on 15 February 2022

After growing up on an aural diet of Hooverphonic and Portishead, finding stellar trip-hop in this era is often a thankless mission, but OXYG3N allowed the endeavour to pay off in his recently released ambient work, New Electric.

Right from the prelude, the emotional magnetism in the reverb grips you before pulling you into the hauntingly cinematic track that almost resonates as spiritual. With the chorally quiescent vocals floating in the ether above the snappy structure of the beats and the mellifluous synth melodies, it’s impossible to feel anything less than transfixed once this meditative yet visceral all the same track reaches its outro.

It scarcely comes as a surprise that OXY3N can rack up tens of thousands of streams with singles such as Forbidden Cube, which leans on hip hop with more weight than New Electric, but you’ll still hear nuances of urban grit in the sonic bliss. It is officially better than anything Beach House has released in recent years. For your soul’s sake, delve in.

New Electric is now available to stream via Spotify, along with OXYG3N’s other tranquil hits.

Review by Amelia Vandergast