Darkish drum and bass, medium tempo. Not for the dancefloor but for headphones. Could be sci-fi but I’d rather think of cityscapes than empty space.
Pessimist – Pessimist
Alignment – Nothingness EP
This record is like a sampler to my current taste in techno. Brilliant tempo, minimal beat, but there’s also hooks and occasional vocal samples. There’s also this trance sound that’s new for me in techno and I’m completely in love with. This is yearly top 10 level of amazing. Makes me miss the dancefloore once more.
KAS:ST – A Magic World
It’s either a wide range of sound of artistic expression, or a mishmash collection of pieces from someone’s backlog of ideas. There’s literally every kind of electronic music from slow to uptempo, instrumental and vocals, techno and broken beats, chilling and dancefloor. What it’s not is foreground music, but also because of the variety it serves as a good backdrop mix for doing something, like work or reading.
ASHE – Strangers Dream
Moody atmospheres, triphop tempo, electronic music meets orchestral sound.
Hugo Massien – Metamorphosis
Bass-heavy slow to mid tempo electronic music. Genrewise it’s a mishmash: the highest percentage is probably house, but it’s changing every other track to dubstep, breakbeat, house, IDM, ambient. Good backdrop for work.
Rob Zombie – The Lunar Injection Kool Aid Eclipse Conspiracy
As good as any Rob Zombie record, it just delivers. Perhaps more musical than the usual, ranging a bunch of genres from the default industrial metal through hard rock and heavy metal to funk and even country, and having melodies that may be beyond what one would expect from this guy.
Planetdamage – Relapse Protocol
Industrial electronics and beyond that goes through a wide range of styles from EBM through breaks to psytrance. It is like an amazing soundtrack to a cyberpunk videogame that I’d love to play. I’m sure Planetdamage would like to imagine people walking through neon-infused city nights while listening to it, but it’s a perfect companion for pushing work, too. The only downside is the vocal, which on the full length gets somewhat tedious because of it’s monotone sound, but since the Bandcamp release has the instrumental version included that’s what I have on replay.
Abstract Orchestra – Madvillain Vol. 1
This has been my soulful positive energy music for the past few weeks. It delivers instant Saturday vibe on any day of the week.
FJAAK & Elli Acula – To The Peak (Steffi Mix)
This brings back amazing memories when my favorite breaks DJs played the kind of nu skool breaks that I loved so much. The Fjaak guys still haven’t missed a beat for me, and Steffi has been an evergreen favorite of mine who pushed this track just that one notch further.
dZihan & Kamien – IV
After Kruder & Dorfmeister’s new release here’s a new album by dZihan & Kamien. Alright, so what’s going on? Is nu jazz making a comeback or what? In any case this is a totally fine album, as good as any Couch Records release from back in the day. I’ll be instered to see whether this series continues or even someone tries something new with the future jazz angle. Maybe even Jazzanova produces something new AND worth listening to?