OPM: Abstractions & Ambient

Very Late Relics – OURORA

Chilled out, lo-fi ambient jazz, perfect for listening to while you stare out a rain-streaked window at a neon-lit nightscape. The vibes here are extremely laidback, but with an underlying tension – I wouldn’t call it easy listening, tho it is pretty easy to listen to. 

Saxophone and electronics are the main ingredients, but you’ll hear bits of guitar, organ, voice, and other familiar touchstones in the mix. There’s a real melancholic air to most of these (tho there are moments of joy to be found) and perhaps a quasi nostalgia for that which was lost, even if no one is sure what it was. Cool stuff. 

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DAKTYLOI – One Bakelite Mazard

Weird hauntological soundscape and musique concrete constructed from tape recordings, snippets of music, and sound effects. Repetitive spoken word elements, sounds that pitch up and down like they’re being played off tape (and probably are), noise, static and various bumps in the night come together in various unsettling ways. 

Not much melody or harmony or traditional structure, but that’s fine – who needs it? The results are strangely hypnotic and, if you let it take you, it will pull you into its odd little sonic world – after 20 minutes or so listening to this, a profound sense of unreality can set in. It’s a bit unnerving, but honestly, that probably just means it is working as intended. 

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Evdog – Special and Ordinary

Eclectic mix of takes on pop, including 90s power pop, throbbing dance pop, experimental/weird art pop, interspersed with an ongoing skit with furry/brony theme. Obviously, this one will be of special interest to the furs and bronies, but even if you aren’t sure what those words even mean, you can definitely vibe with these tunes. 

Given the furry-forward framing of the album, I presume there are deep thematic connections but knowledge of them isn’t a prerequisite – I am not a part of that scene and these songs still bop. Honestly, it’s surprisingly accessible overall! It is weird alt pop, but with a slightly different spin I feel like most of these would keep the normies happy. 

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IAmImperfect – Reincarnate EP

Polished, high-gloss electronic pop with powerful male vocals. There are some guitars in there too, and they get to chugging pretty good a few times, but this is not a rock production by any means. It’s just a step off the mainstream pop approach into alt territory – think something like a higher energy Bob Moses. 

This four-song EP offers a few different moods, all on the more intense side of the spectrum. It’s just about tailor-made for a festival setting – I can all but see the kids bouncing at the drop in my mind’s eye. If you’re in the mood for some powerful electronic pop spiked with guitars, give this a shot and see if it fits the bill for you. 

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Guinea Dropper – Cymatic Lines

Intriguing set of electronic exploratory works, incorporating elements of early IDM, electro, ambient, abstract electronica and more. None of this fits cleanly within well defined genre lines, but nothing is particularly alien or outre – the base elements are common enough, they’re just mixed and matched in somewhat novel ways. 

Lots of interesting synth sequences and some pretty classic synth timbres, relatively laidback beats, minimal arrangements, and some interesting moody ambience here and there. It’s fairly mellow overall, but a few tracks kick things into high gear (the guitars help). Call it abstract downtempo spiked with prickly electronic instrumentals, perhaps? Defies easy categorization, but it’s easy enough to listen to!

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