It’s October and the days are getting shorter, nights cooler and the late night listening is turning to a moodier nature. Icy synths and church ready atmospherics all are signs of the approaching winter’s midi melancholy. The Drum’s ambient pics this fall showcase the best whirrs, crackles and drones set to rhythm around. It starts with the best and the rest follow in take it as you wish order.
Beehatch
BEEHATCH
Having played together over a decade ago in the group Download, Phil Western and Mark Spybey, make good on the name by recollaborating solely online for the richly textured drones and breaks of Beehatch – a brilliant sonic odyssey.
Lens Records
The Happy Error
MICHAEL SANTOS
Michael Santos’ The Happy Error skims a whisper thin border between cinematic ambient and mood enhancing sound art. Santos subtle melodies layered with soft electrical crackles and plenty of atmospheric whirs, pops and drones, transcend their circuit board womb with a surprising amount of warmth.
Baskaru Records
This Liquid Sky
NOISE LEVEL
This Liquid Sky’s promo material asks what is music but organized noise, and it’s the thin divide between the two sampler/keyboardist Ed Matthews and synth player Rick Walton explore in Noise Level. Gaseous synths, low hums and obscure b movie clips ride the occasional beat barrage and cresting atmospherics. This imaginary soundtrack makes the most of the space between stillness and controlled frenzy.
Noise Level
Motion In Mind
IUENGLISS
Denver based musician Tom Metz, reaches past merely accessible IDM into epic ambient pop with Motion In Mind’s sweeping melodies, glacial synths and fractured rhythms. The metallic tones and shoegazing soundscapes are all perfect backdrop to his yearning vocals, and the rest of the digital grandeur creates a visceral experience that amounts to a collection of soaring IDM serenades.
Bocumast Records
Sekunden
SWOD
This for me is now traditional yuletide music. A frosty Scandinavian audioscape mined from the keyboards and microchips of Swedish producers SWOD, Sekund is breathtakingly beautiful. A follow-up to Gehen, SWOD’S artful longing returns with repeating piano chords, disembodied voices and gentle rhythms. All of it is subtly digitized atop an acoustic soul that builds into an intensely intimate and cinematic experience.
Forced Exposure
VA
Future Memories
Interchill DJ/A&R Nathalie Edell is at the helm as selector of 10 previously unreleased tracks from the globally-minded “organic electronica” label. This time dreamier than ever once again the smooth textures of the Interchill digital polish define the hypnotic psy-glitch and groove on offer.
Interchill Records