OPM: Soundscape Escape

Moray Newlands – The Red, Red Earth

A longform, continuous mix of neo classical, ambient, and soundscape into a hypnotic, ever-changing whole. The overall mood is pensive, reflective, and thoughtful, with occasional moments of tension and release. Much of it is beatless (but not rhythmless) in the way that much classical and ambient is, but occasionally beats come in to drive the music someplace and add a little energy. 

Much more often, we get weird, spacy experimental interludes full of laser noises or field recording snippets or snatches of drone flitting in and out. Or, heck, how about some spoken word, just to change things up? An intriguing release with a strong aesthetic sense, smart ideas, and some really nice execution. 

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François Dumeaux – “Ikarusu” / “Villes Fantômes”

A pair of spacious, haunted soundscapes made of audio detritus forged into evocative patterns. It’s not a terribly musical release in the terms of traditional markers of music, but it is sonically compelling from beginning to end. Electrical buzzes, extreme timestretch artifacts, digital noise, and similar sonic cruft and marginalia are the main ingredients. 

There are probably some traditional instruments and synths in the mix, but if so they’ve been as thoroughly folded, spindled, and mutilated as the other timbres and thus don’t make a fuss of themselves. All told, it’s a fascinating exercise in audio minimalism and soundscape manipulation.

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JAMBB – One Drop EP

A five-track collection of smoky, sophisticated downtempo and neo reggae informed by trip hop, R&B, and soul. A sultry voiced singer, some sophisticated playing, and those classic reggae riddims are the core features. A constellation of overlapping and complementary influences adds an appealing wrapper to the core riddims underneath. 

While it’s not “retro” in any meaningful way, I can’t help but think this would have felt right at home – and found plenty of fans – on a back-to-mine downtempo mix circa 2003 or so. And apart from the fact that style of mix is a bit out of fashion, there’s no reason it can’t find those fans today!

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Default Media Transmitter – The Machines Are Having Fun

Odd and intriguing collection of minimal electronic experimentation, fragmentary techno, and post industrial soundscape. Most of these tracks are aiming at maximum impact with minimal sounds – mostly bare beats give way to mostly solitary sequences and sparse soundscapes.

The sense of space is played against some fairly dense sounds, which helps balance the energy and keep it from being too claustrophobic. Sometimes the results are like a techno flotsam and jetsam, others like just the spine of an industrial song, and it occasionally shifts down into full-blown ambient. Overall, there’s plenty of interesting bits to be found here, and they’re always easy to spot in the minimal arrangements. 

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Hidden Fountain – Paper Charm

Super Hi-Fi synth tunes that cover influences from kosmische to art pop. The production is immaculate. The female vocals are reminiscent of Kate Bush without sounding like an imitation. It’s weird, but accessibly weird. And the tunes are generally strong. 

For me, that’s a pretty promising recipe, and this delivers on the promise. Each of these five tracks offers something unique, from the high-drama art pop of the opener to the spacy electro kosmische-meets-exotica of the closer. Dip in and see if one, or more, of them doesn’t speak to you.

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