Twitter discourse is to be taken with a pinch of salt but following the publication of RA's 'The Return Of Ambient And New Age' this week ambient as a genre got a whole load of stick. Honestly, we've seen variations of this piece so many times it seems like a waste of energy but anyway, if you want proof that ambient is great then check below.
Ishio Dai - MIMI
Eleven minutes of chuggy proggy house from Japan.
Deep Breakfast 046 - Forest Management
Forest Management has a new album and here's a mix to go with it, full of aaaaaambient of all types. Graceful piano, deep moods, sombre synths, birdsong, wobbling electronic nodes, glistening bells. You know the drill. Not to downplay it, it's wonderful.
Scossh Mdonori - "Tech Me On"
Utterly glorious and sumptuous house from South African producer Scossh Mdonori. Three versions of the same track, a total of 21 minutes, and each moment is more hypnotic than the last.
HARUKA - Live Set <New Town Radio> Room To Live 1.23.20
A wonderful set here from HARUKA on the New York station. It starts with Steve Reich, plays with 90s acid electronica, gets properly funky and even features a house track that samples Nas's 'Life's A Bitch' (way too fast but still brought a smile to my face). It's fun.
Dreams - Machine Age Paradise
I'm not too sure who Dreams is, bar having a show on NTS and releasing on labels like Apron and Pinkman in recent years. This tape for Entro Senestre's BANK label is a wonderfully raucous selection of hazy, misty electro that snarls and sways angrily.
NIP 32 | livwutang
Last year the Neptunian Influence series brought us a stunning mix from ADAB, and the first of this year comes from livwutang. It's heavy, light, powerful, graceful, as the DJ says, it's full of "vast multitudes and non-linearity".
Madam Data - All the Rooms I Have Been Touched in (Remix)
This remix collection takes a few tracks from the 2019 release and reworks them in different moods. Sonic abstraction, post-trip-hop murkiness, sound art explorations.
Dalibor Cruz - In Favor Of Detriments
This is such a lumpy weird track. I can't get enough of its awkward plod.
Perila _Mix 19 (Temple)
I put Perila's tape for Motion Ward in here before Christmas and I just ripped her Air/Leather tape for TTT this week and have been listening to it a lot. Now this drops. Gorgeously smushy and soft and airy. Give us a chance!!!
Lila Tirando a Obsoleta - music for staplers
Lila produced this album in a flurry of activity the other day, and nearly didn't share it in the wake of the aforementioned RA piece. In fact, she said she doesn't know how long it will be up so grab it while you can. It's woozy and trippy, with misty spoken word, drifting sonics, digital harmonicas, shuffling beats, field recordings and more. What a title, too.
Long Distance Poison - Giving Up On Me (excerpt)
More swirling wonder from Hausu Mountain, this one is out today and consists of two lengthy tracks from the Brooklyn-based duo of Nathan Cearley and Erica Bradbury. It's "a hollowed out quasi-reality where only a spiritual afterimage of human presence remains". Cool. The above is an excerpt but the full thing is here.
turn off the dark 13
The artist here sent me the mix in the hope that I might enjoy it and boy I did. It really nails a range of vibes, from mutated, experimental 60s pop, 80s vibey playfulness, delicate jazziness, 90s electronica and more. It's fantastic.
· Interpunct · by Diane Barbé (Radio Punctum)
This 40-minute set is serenely blissful, just the kind of ambient stuff to wind up some nerds on Twitter. It's super weird but also comforting and inspiring.
Machine Woman - Gift of admiration and gratitude
Machine Woman is wonderfully weird. For her birthday this year she dropped this silky gem that's part 90s rnb-inflected house, part metallic techno. It's a banger! Free DL!
Bruce - Get Loose! Dedicated To The Life Of Alex T : 29th January '20
It's hard to introduce this. I won't pretend I was close to Alex T, who died early this week. He was a Twitter mutual who I knew as a DJ, promoter and record store guy. He seemed to know everyone, and had time for everyone. We occasionally exchanged tweets and DMs, sharing tunes and laughing about industry nonsense. His shop Tribe in Leeds had a service where they'd send you random records based on your taste and budget and I had planned to subscribe, hoping to add a smidgen of his genius to my own collection. I never got around to it and I'll always regret that (no disrespect to the other staff at Tribe, of course). Anyway, Bruce put together a two-hour show this week made up of tunes that people suggested because of some connection with Alex. Be it him recommending it in a shop, playing it at a gig, helping with a demo, any other such remembrance. It's joyful, because that's what a lot of this music is! It's a celebration of a life lived as much as it is mourning for what's lost. As Bruce says at the end: "You'll stay alive in all of our hearts."
I feel like I need to make a statement but at the same time, just enjoy the music. Not to be all "let people enjoy things", but ... You know.