Tornado Wallace

Review: Over his last few releases, Australian producer Tornado Wallace has crafted a trademark sound that blends colourful, kaleidoscopic melodies with dreamy chords and an almost Balearic sense of glassy-eyed release. Interestingly, these aural trademarks are played down a little on this follow-up to his 2013 Beats In Space debut. Sure, they can be heard in the picturesque, luscious beauty of flipside "Ferntree Gully", but the title track is an altogether rougher concoction. "Kangaroo Ground" sees the Melbourne man successfully try his hand at acid house, layering twisted 303 lines and occasional cosmic chords over a clanking drum machine rhythm. It's a surprise, but a very impressive one.

Review: Given Gerd Jansen's experience, connections and deep-rooted knowledge of underground dance music culture, it's perhaps unsurprising that he's recruited some top-draw talents to remix Tornado Wallace's fantastic Lonely Planet album. Versatile veteran I:Cube is arguably the star of the show. Not only does he deliver a deliciously saucer-eyed take on "Today" - think spacey, left-of-centre synth-pop fused with dream house aesthetics and lolloping electro beats - but also a slightly more tribal-sounding "Beats" version full of dub delays that's equally as inspired. Elsewhere, Move D provides a darker, thickset deep house version of "Today", while Scandolearic overlord Prins Thomas turns "Trance Encounters" into a bubbling, otherworldly epic rich in bustling acid lines, descending melodies and sun-kissed guitars.

Review: Since shifting his focus more towards atmospheric, Balearic-minded sounds a few years back, Tornado Wallace has delivered some of the most deliciously humid and glassy-eyed music around. Hopes are naturally high, then, for this long-anticipated debut album. It picks up from where his sublime ESP Institute, Beats In Space and Second Circle releases left off, delivering a warm, evocative, sun kissed blend of shuffling Balearic grooves, horizontal soundscapes, gentle tropical workouts, and rich, synth-laden explorations. There's a pleasing haziness throughout, with live percussion and instrumentation rubbing shoulders with glistening synthesizers, ear-pleasing electronics and pulsing drum machine hits. In other words, it's a fine debut album.