Favorite Releases from October 2021
unsent letters and leaves fall from up here
the pause in you unfurling in silence
a distant memory
a feather
a veil
- Lyndsie Alguire
Summer is officially over, as gentle warm breezes give way to autumn chills and the leaves crunch underfoot. We are looking forward to the new season that brings stunning new releases. October has provided some exciting tracks and albums featuring Leif, Estrato Aurora, O-Wells, Claudio PRC, Archivist, Ross From Friends, Call Super, Tristan Arp, Herbert, and Lerosa release on AD93, Delsin Records, Suzi, Oslated, Sure Thing, Brainfeeder, Can You Feel The Sun, Wisdom Teeth, Accidental Records, and Acid Test.
Leif
Seven Hour Flight To Nowhere
AD93
UK-based producer Leif Knowles, better known as Leif, released his fifth album via AD93 ( former Whities.) The new album is the follow-up to his 2020 “Music For The Screen Tests” also released on Nic Tasker’s imprint. “9 Airs” consists of nine tracks, each a unique spell cast by the delicate facets of Lief’s highly imaginative musical expression. “9 Airs took shape during an unconscious reconnection with music long since forgotten; an instinctive recall for melodies played out on guitar, low whistle and voice,” the label describes.
Balancing acoustic instrumentation with percolating electronic tendencies, the opening track "Seven Hour Flight To Nowhere" weaves together a sonic bouquet of atmospheric electronic textures, soft guitar breezes, and subdued harmonies.
Estrato Aurora
Movig
Oslated
Jeju Island-based imprint Oslated presents its ”Chimhyangmoo“ various artist compilation. The name Chimhyangmoo 침향무 means dancing in the smoke that rises while burning the noble incense of ‘Agarwood.’ The collection of sixteen tracks offers a mixture of deep techno and ambient microsound from around the world featuring Dycide, Estrato Aurora, Klara, Pseudobaul, Biocym, Doctrina Natura, Nigm among others.
Haunting and spatial deep “Movig” is designed in Estrato Aurora’s signature style blending immersive and atmospheric techno with futuristic percussive patterns and organic textures shaped by sonic reverberations.
O-Wells
Orchid
SUZI
The Luxembourg producer Cleveland launches his own imprint SUZI with the four-track release. Berlin-based Rudolph C, Tristan Arp from Mexico, De Lichting‘s stalwart quineev, and Die Orakel regular O-Wells bring their unique vibe and vision to fruition creating a coherent micro-universe of futuristic and leftfield electronics.
O-Wells is closing the B-Side, serving up his style with the vibrant “Orchid”, setting the euphoric mood with electric sparks, bleeps and blips, brooding undertones, and a strong break foundation.
Claudio PRC
Mana
Delsin Records
Italian prolific producer Claudio PRC joins Delsin’s Cameron series with a new three-track “Rites Of Passage” EP that showcases his production mastery and sound design.
From the gently hypnotic waves of sound to the rolling abstract rhythms and spatial effects, the opening track “Mana” effortlessly taps into the deep veins of atmospheric techno.
Archivist
Psion
Sure Thing
Sure Thing imprint collaborates with Seattle-based producer Archivist and Italian artist Claudio PRC culminating in the mighty EP “Psion.” The package contains “two original productions from Archivist recall dense, billowing fog and the gentle shimmer of waves, each re-imagined through Claudio PRC's exacting lens into novel forms that spiral with steady, monolithic intent. Brought together, an expansive double vision, an exploration of the compelling nature of movement and air each within the other,” the label describes.
The title track “Psion” is channeling a meditative deep techno vibe brimming with propulsive energy and shimmering electronic ambiance.
Ross From Friends
XXX Olympiad
Brainfeeder
British producer Felix Clary Weatherall is better known as Ross From Friends brings his beautiful musical creations in form of a highly anticipated album “Tread” to Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder imprint. The twelve-track collection incorporates lots of influences into a multifaceted sound that is both modern and nostalgic. Here is what the label intended to say about this release:
“On ‘Tread’ Ross From Friends dials up the intricate and emotive qualities of his production style that have previously led Mixmag to praise his “idiosyncratic dexterity that not only makes your heartache but dance right out of your chest.” An artist who demonstrates an ever-increasing mastery of his craft, ‘Tread’ is a record that is at once sleek and melodic but also eminently danceable, nostalgic but brilliantly modern, with nods to sounds and styles that are not so much reflected but refracted and recontextualized through Clary Weatherall’s lens.”
“XXX Olympiad” is built on warm, soulful melodies which explore emotive moments bringing with it a vague feeling of nostalgia.
Call Super
bodiesinheaven II
Can You Feel The Sun
Respected UK producer and artist Call Super unveiled the second part of the five-track double EP “Cherry Drops” released through Can You Feel The Sun, the label he runs with the London-based producer Parris. The “Cherry Drops II” EP contains two original tracks reflective of the funky breaks and West Africa-inspired percussive rhythms inflected with elements of jazz and subtle intricacies.
“The adventurous EP by Call Super, real name Joseph Richmond Seaton, is a collection of tracks written around the time they were working on a larger project called ‘Tell Me I Didn’t Choose This’, which reflects on a period in their life of upheaval, trauma, and self-discovery. However, the music on Cherry Drops became a release from that project - a distraction from painful reflections and recollections. Reconnecting with music made solely for the dancefloor became their much-needed escape, as it was in those spaces they originally found release and freedom during pivotal periods in their life,” the label describes.
“bodiesinheaven II” maintains an impeccable balance of energy and euphoria. By decorating irresistible breakbeat structures and West Africa-inspired rhythms with obscure strains of jazzy passages, Call Super’s melodic universe brings the listener on a sonic adventure into a funk-infused world.
Tristan Arp
Gypsum
Wisdom Teeth
The Mexico City-based multidisciplinary artist Tristan Arp embraces his experimental artistry on the second studio album released via British imprint Wisdom Teeth. On this album, Tristan Arp presents a sound collage of ambient electronics with touches of glitch and modular textures.
“Sculpturegardening” is a concept album that compares the music-making approach to gardening. In artists' own words: “With Sculpturegardening, my concept was to approach music like gardening. I collaborated with machines inspired by the way a gardener collaborates with the earth," says Tristan Arp. "A gardener creates the conditions for the plants to come to life and develop on their own. In a similar way, I created a set of conditions and probabilities for the music to make itself."
Rich with electro-acoustic instrumentation, vibrant modular, and sequencing capabilities, “Gypsum” is a fusion of well-programmed percussive rhythms with an experimental edge.
Herbert
The Impossible feat. Allie Armstrong
Accidental Records
The legendary producer Matthew Herbert shares the third installment of the domestic house series under the name of Herbert, following his innovative LP “Around The House (1998),” and “Bodily Functions (2001)”, both reissued this year on vinyl as part of a special ‘21st anniversary of the Accidental Records. “Musca” is a collaborative album that sees the artist partnering with eight vocalists whom he has never met nor partnered with before. The fourteen-track album features Verushka, Siân Roseanna Music, Allie Armstrong, Bianca Rose, Mel Uye-Parker, Daisy Godfrey, Y'akoto, and Joy Morgan. “The album takes its name from musca - the genus part of the Latin name for a housefly and includes a variety of sounds from around the farm where he lives in South East Kent, UK, including a synth made from his wife’s dog, one of his pigs snoring and fox cubs gekkering.”
“Matthew says: “Like presumably many other albums made during the last year, Musca reflects on navigating the challenges and joys of our most intimate relationships whilst the world is in turmoil. Not just with Covid, but with the rise in state and political violence, facebook-friendly fascism, white supremacy, and a climate in crisis.”
Lerosa
Uneasy
Acid Test
Acid Test celebrates its 10th anniversary with a triple LP compilation showcasing a decade of groundbreaking work with a focus on the multifaceted 303. “Ten Years Of Acid Test is a valuable portrait of a group of artists linked by a dedication to innovation within acid, in line with the genre's storied roots. Over ten years, Acid Test has gracefully made a case for the 303's past, present, and future, the story of acid continuing to unfurl in unpredictable, addictive patterns.” The collection of fifteen tracks explores an endless sonic universe of 303 featuring contributions from Tim Man, Lerosa, Donato Dozzi, VC-118a, John Tejada, Erika, Wata Igarashi, Marcellus Pittman, Achterbahn D'Amour among others.
Lerosa’s “Uneasy” comes to life with slow-burning drifts of soft-hued acid bleeps rumbling around rolling rhythms.