TYCHO Vinilo y CD

Review: Released at the height of chillwave, 'Dive' was a staple of early-2010s YouTube algorithm downtempo. While relatively few people were aware of Tycho before then, the artist (real name Scott Hansen) had already been working for nearly 20 years as a musician and graphic designer under the ame ISO50, which later led to sonic-visual mastery of 'minimal' in all its forms. Something between prog, electronic and washed out, the album struck a nerve among the net-nestled young, serving as one of the earliest examples of a kind of opiate music that would go on to influence the taste of a generation.

Review: Welcome back Tycho, on a productive roll and ready to dive straight back in after 2019's stellar "Weather" album for Ninja Tune. This follow-up continues in the vein of Scott Hansen's creative arc to date, fusing traditional band dynamics with electronics in the most fluid of ways, and making a heart-stirring brew out of the resulting interplay. The drums bite with urgency on tracks like "Outer Sunset", but never at the expense of the winsome guitar lines and swooning synths. The tempo ups and the beats diversify on "Easy", but the overall mood remains consistent throughout "Simulcast". It's a cohesive world that wraps around you from the first bars to the last, and it's a very pleasant place to be.

Review: It's been some three years since the release of Dive, the most recent full length from Scott Hansen's decidedly Balearic Tycho project. Here he returns to regular home Ghostly International with Awake, his fourth full-length. It sees him in fine form, delivering a sun-bright set that melds blissful guitars and shoegaze textures with hazy electronics, warm grooves and orange-hued atmospherics. Hansen is a master at creating unashamedly positive, evocative music, and Awake is full of these kind of smile-inducing moments. Aside from being impeccably well made, it is also pleasingly cheery. If you've yet to succumb to his charms, Awake is a great place to start.

Review: It has been twenty years since the first Back To Mine release but still the series is going strong. These personal after-hours soundtracks have never sounded more relevant than now, and next up is GRAMMYr Award-nominated, San Francisco-based artist Tycho. It finds him going deeper than one of his famous Burning Man sets as he heads into otherworldly, cinematic headphone territory with tunes from Lancaster, Little Dragon, Octo Octa, Ulrich Schnauss and many more across four fantastic sides of vinyl.