Explore the ultra-futuristic world created by the man behind the mask in our latest artist interview!
Thanks for Understanding and Fermi Lekunde come together for a debut collaboration
Two new tracks by these Toronto-based artists produce innovative sound
‘Donovan Birds’ is the first collaboration between Toronto-based musicians Thanks for Understanding and Fermi Lekunde. The former is the alias Ali Awah who brings an indie sound to the two-track collaboration. The latter, Fermi Lekunde, brings the other dimension to the sound; he was classically trained in piano before turning to experiment with electronic music beginning with FM synthesis, deconstructed analog beats, and Space FX. His inspiration comes from the emerging Toronto techno scene that he saw growing up, including Jeremy Greenspan, Ciel, and Daphni.
Thanks for Understanding released Year of Uncertain Gods in 2021—his second album after Kevin Nishri Tape from 2020. Additionally, he has released singles including ‘Milk’ in 2019, and ’Kulish Helu’ in 2020. A live set from 2020 featuring Thanks for Understanding can also be replayed via Biblioteka Records. Fermi Lekunde has released two EPs in collaboration with Toronto-based label Doubt & Uncertainty: Hydra in 2020, and The Once and Future in 2019. Prior to that, he released the EP Comess in 2019.
Thanks for Understanding brings his self-described androgynous and genre-less sound to Donovan Birds. He adds the elements of real-life-sound, voice, and bubbly disorientation. Mixed with Fermi Lekunde’s warm techno feel that combine ambient sound textures, glitches, and rhythmic beats, the collaboration arrives at an unpredictable set of jazzy, techno, acoustic music that leaves the listener in an auditory cliff hanger.
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Amoa floats vocals upon idm, in solo album ‘You’
Combining organic beauty with impactful electronic beats, Amoa’s debut collection evokes tranquillity and far horizons
Since 2019 Swiss singer and composer Andrea Thoma has been releasing a trail of singles under the name of Amoa, creating soft chillwave laced with idm electronica. Her discography so far hums with warm vocals, and an appreciation for how subtle organic samples can elevate the quality of flowing synth.
Now Amoa steps towards a more focused route, as she draws those singles together and releases a fresh wave of work to release her debut album ‘You’. Into her sound falls production support from Roland Vollenweider and Jonathan Nage, as well as guitar from Simon Boss.
The electronic aspect in Amoa’s work is more present than might be expected of a project able to deliver so strongly from a vocal standpoint. There’s the smooth atmospheric vibe of chillwave but also the heavier pulse of glitch. Space is left for Amoa’s impressive voice but other samples move in between the synthetic soundscape to add to the organic quality of the tracks.
‘You’ was recently released on the Radicalis label, and achieves a balance of synthetic power and delicate harmony. Each individual track forms a small oasis, carrying peaceful melodies which float skywards to form an ethereal canopy.
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Propulse take risks with new collection ‘Digiform’
The small town project gets off the ground with an experimental balance between glitch and idm
Propulse is a collaborative project, a joint venture into idm and experimental by brothers Kyle and Jon Wall. The pair are based in out in small town Ontario, working together to spread their sound out to other artists and listeners. Their connection with the Canadian label ‘A Person Disguised As People’ is serving as a way for them to do just that, with an EP already released last year and a more extensive five track collection dropping later this month.
Though the sound explored by Propulse in their earlier work with ‘A Person Disguised As People’ back in 2020 was structured around muted snare beats and a soft bass undercurrent, their upcoming release ‘Digiform’ moves into a more accentuated style of idm.
In tracks like ‘Glitterbroke 74’ and ‘Cloud 9 People’ the brothers lean more heavily on glitch, which a touch of acid house squelch. There’s a smoother quality to other inclusions on the EP though, with the inclusion of synth waves helping to blur the boundaries between the decidedly synthetic beats.
Our featured track ‘Digiform’ balances these somewhat contrasting tones, even moving to include organic, natural samples, as well as pads. Playing together with the glitch, Digiform is an experiment that pays off.
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A futuristic burst of drum and bass from Pixelord’s ‘202X’
Continuing to create cross genre tracks imbued with heavy bass, Pixelord enters the New Year with Moscow label Hyperboloid
Russia’s electronic scene is the home of many ambitious artists pushing forward into new experimental territories, and it’s from the midst of this volatile community that Alexey Devayin emerges, a producer better known as Pixelord.
Pixelord has toyed with IDM, glitch, and created some heavier drum and bass tracks with an energy that sweeps through the room. It’s clear that the confines of sticking to one genre don’t appeal to the artist however, and the desire to employ new elements and attempt fresh styles is the common theme that runs through Pixelord’s work.
In the past Pixelord has worked together with such labels as Leisure System and Infinite Machine, and was asked to perform at the first ever Boiler Room session held in Russia. His most recent label connection has been with the bass leaning collective Hyperboloid Records, who encourage the eclectic type of community in which more creative producers are able to thrive.
Our featured track comes to us via the Hyperboloid 2021 compilation album, which features artists both old and new to the label. Within ‘202X’ the worlds of future bass and garage collide, generating intense levels of energy with a cosmic edge.
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Taut creates melodic IDM landscapes, with ‘Vertices’
The producer heads toward his first full length album and drops a multilayered single along the way
For over a decade now Jacob Bergson has been at work within New York City, bringing his sound and personality to the music scene there. He’s found common ground with other artists based in the city, such as Rubblebucket and Jojo Mayer of Nerve, but also spent time away from the USA to perform abroad.
Bergson’s current project ‘Taut’ is a more recent creative venture, and marks the first time the producer has presented himself as solo artist. The steadily expanding discography under Taut’s name exudes vibes of IDM and glitch, as well as hints of influence from Floating Points and Siriusmo.
A full length album is on the way, but for now Taut’s identity is wrapped up in a handful of singles created this year. In these tracks downtempo beats set the foundation for extensive experimentation with synthesizer, with electronica melodies ebbing in and out of the landscape.
The most recent single from Taut which should pave the way to the expected LP is ‘Vertices’. The track is a dip into sonic waves and waters stirred by rising synthesizer and deep beats below the surface. At times Vertices falls back to minimalist melody, then resurfaces, alive and resonant.
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Murakumo brings forth hidden projects with new EP ‘Identical Days’
The Dutch producer looks to his personal experiments as he focuses on solo releases
Murakumo has been a quiet side project for Luuc O over the past few years. The producer stood out for his contribution to the now retired IDM duo known as Ludique, and made a name for himself in the electronica community of Groningen in the Netherlands. Between preforming marathon DJ sets across the city, the artist would occasionally tinker with flavours of glitch, techno and UK garage. This aside into private work and experimental sampling would invariably end up stored on a pocket size USB, gradually planting the seeds for a new venture into the electronica scene, now coming to fruition.
The reclusive artist has finally begun to open up a little more, sharing his thoughts and ideas with the release of ‘Identical Days’ in December. The collection is a five track EP which delivers stirring but melodically smooth IDM, clean percussion sliding alongside mellow synth and low bass.
‘Identical Days’ gathers sounds of meditative future garage, and tinkers with ambience vibrant with character and stirred by manipulated vocals. Our featured track ‘Walk in the Park’ shimmers with light percussion, cosmic but cooling.
It’s a step away from the previous sound explored with Ludique, and a chance to wander in a fresh direction.
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After a two decade hiatus, vcam announces a return
Pulled back to creation, the experimental artist is reconnecting and looking to new possibilities
Vcam has been away for production for so long that he could be mistaken for a new arrival to the community, recently signed up to the Californian label n5MD. This assumption would land you far from the truth, though with after an extended hiatus of roughly twenty years it’s a mistake you could certainly be forgiven for making. In reality, James Long was developing his experimental electronica project vcam when n5MD was first starting, becoming the first artist to sign to the label and help push it towards its continued success today.
A change in scenery and the priority shifting effects of 2020 brought Long back into the headspace to return to music, and to the platform of minimal melodies he built up for himself. Vcam returned to the scene with a demonstration of the tracks he’d been tinkering together during his absence from the scene.
The first step back is set to be followed by new energy and the products of vcam’s rebuilt studio, in the form of upcoming album Arconide. The collection is expected to drop on December 4th, carrying textured melodies stirred up by manipulated alien beats. Vcam delivers a taster with lead track ‘77’, visceral sound accompanied by flowing overtones.
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Monophobe and Sixtus Preiss mix atypical attitudes to create ‘Jaune’
Backed by Affine Records, two experimental producers collaborate on a vibrant track
Affine Records is a Vienna based label which brings to the table sounds of nu-jazz, hip hop and dancefloor vibes. Fluid and flexible with the artists they support, creative energy is the key connection linking the artist collective, which includes names like Dorian Concept and Wandl.
It’s through Affine Records that upcoming track ‘Jaune’ is being produced, a collaborative effort from Monophobe and Sixtus Preiss. Both artists are located in Vienna, but share deeper connections in regard to their creative process, each embracing a deeply experimental vibe and taking unexpected directions which at times can echo the freedom of alternative jazz.
Monophobe avoids settling into a particular genre or point of predictability, not just in a general sense but also within the details of each individual track. His most recent collection, the ‘Screw Drivers EP’ plays with downtempo, found sound, rich pads and intense synth.
In Sixtus Preiss it seems Monophobe finds a kindred soul. Sixtus Preiss has developed similar skills as a multi-instrumentalist, and his hip hop tracks create a left field, nu jazz percussive arena to illuminate vocalists.
In ‘Jaune’ the two adamantly expressive producers have created an IDM sound which combines dancefloor beat with more flavours than you might think possible.
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Harmony from chaos: Tenebral Cortex’s ‘Shore of Laments’
Dark electronica artist Tenebral Cortex lets loose his unpredictable new album: ‘‘Arduous Recursion’
Tenebral Cortex has been working as part of the Geometric Corruption label, a coalition of artists from the underground, both in terms of the sector of electronica they inhabit and the lightless form of dark IDM they create.
Geometric Corruption joins together international electronic producers of experimental and psychedelic, a community which embraces avant-garde. It’s an environment which suits Tenebral Cortex well, his own moniker giving connotations of braindance and darker tones.
Native to France, Tenebral Cortex has previously found his way onto the Horrordelic collaboration album ‘Echoes in the Dark’ put together at the end of 2018, his atmospheric and somewhat disconcerting single ‘Seeking Entropy’ being chosen as the lead-in track. Like ‘Seeking Entropy’, much of this artist’s work finds a balance between chaotic glitch sampling and focused effort to keep rhythm and cohesion in the final release.
That pattern returns in the intro to ‘Shore of Laments’, a song taken from Tenebral Cortex’s recently released eight track album ‘Arduous Recursion’. The harsh beats of glitch and corrupted digital noise create a soundscape before moving towards a more rhythmic and harmonic environment. Part of that unfamiliar ambience helps clear expectations, as the seemingly random effects begin to give way to lucidity.
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