Tags: Ambient House

Review: With his release schedule operating at a gentle pace to allow for each of his twelves to sit and be considered on their own merit, Daniel 'Red Rack'Em' Berman makes just his second outing of 2013 with this pair of cuts for the ever strengthening Wolf Music. It's a record that shows off Berman's idiosyncratic approach to deep house on two very different levels. The first track, "In Love Again", is as blissed-out and heartfelt a take as you could wish for, from the sumptuous pad lines to the plastic strings that positively ooze contentment and passion. "Latin Techno" meanwhile is perhaps less predictable based on its title, opting for a jagged cut up of drum machine patterns and contorted brass sounds but rubbing them up in a non-direct way that makes for a delirious and utterly singular end result.

Review: You wait ages for a Lord of the Isles album, and two come along at once! 'Night of the Endless Beyond', the Scottish producer's second full-length excursion for ESP Institute, follows hot on the heels of the inspired (if shorter) 'Subtle Thoughts' on Lapsus. While that was almost entirely made up of typically atmospheric ambient sketches, this epic goes further, complimenting his usual beat-free brilliance with forays into dubbed-out, deep space ambient techno ('Endless Beyond'), analogue-rich emotive techno (the star-fall brilliance of 'Strato'), ambient house ('Together' and the wonderfully trippy 'Quadralogue'), crackly IDM ('Truth') and picturesque, soft-focus dancefloor hypnotism ('Wonder').

Review: Image Man's discography may not yet be bulging, but it already includes a couple of killer 12" singles built around dusty deep house loop jams, and melodious, Motor City-influenced explorations. On Glance, the New York native's debut for Vancouver institution 1080p, he continues on this theme. There's much to admire, from the snappy drum machine rhythms and jazz-funk loops of "More", and spacey, Detroit inspired dancefloor dreaminess of "Else", to the glassy-eyed new age house positivity of "Glance". Closer "Goobye" [sic], with its' thick, sludgy, delay-laden drums, swirling sound effects and distant vocoder vocals, is reminiscent of the halcyon days of ambient house.

Review: Mood Hut's semi-regular forays into ambient-adjacent territory are always worth checking, largely for their preference for hallucinatory sounds, new age melodies and loved-up textures over academic concepts and po-faced experimentalism. Their latest chill-out room friendly missive, which comes courtesy of Chinese producer Knopha, embraces this approach while also offering nods to his own off-kilter dancefloor productions. So, opener 'Fizz', a languid, post-club shuffler, is followed by the jazz-flecked, opiate ambient soul of 'The Light', and the sun-bright joy of 'Mizu Le Gout', where loose-limbed breakbeats, star-burst melodies and cut-up vocal snippets catch the ear. Arguably best of all, though, is the EP-closing 'Corundrum', where Mediterranean guitar sounds and echoing electronic motifs cluster around a UK garage-influenced ambient house groove.

Review: Lake Haze's third album on Shall Not Fade is another triumph with his signature shimmering melodies strung out over lush beats. Drawing on house, disco, garage and broken beat it is a rich affair with a strong UK vibe. There is elegance and symphony to opener 'Xyleac' that immediately gets your head amongst the stars. 'Diluspth' keeps up the majestic synth while 'Bbyncole' is double-speed techno with balmy celestial synths and hurried bass that locks you in. Tender ambient pieces like 'Shores Of Eternal Life' reset the mood and then the second half is a series of shorter sketches packed with electronic soul.

Review: Dark Entries welcome back the inimitable Doc Sleep aka Melissa Maristuen for a superb new album of ghostly and ethereal house and techno. This is a welcome follow-up to last year's ambient and IDM exploration, Birds, and shows another side that draws on Maristuen's years of queer clubbing. It fuses aspects of New York house, Berlin techno and West-coast breakbeats and is "a love letter to the West Coast's magnificent natural landscape, the light of the Pacific sunrise." That is reflected in the sublime synths and silky rhythms which manage to both move your body but also captivate your mind. It's another cracking album from the Doc.

Review: We hope you're hungry for some wiggy proto trance magic, because here comes a bang tidy remix package of Sam Goku's East Dimensional Riddims album, which landed on Dutch label Atomnation last year. The A side finds Lauer taking on 'Far Far Fantastic' and making it into a swirling, acid-speckled epic for full tilt, hands aloft, spiritually charged dancefloor awakenings. Breakthrough Chilean talent Paula Tape is busy on the B side with a glorious, melodious version of 'Earlier Forms' which pushes a tough, early 90s vibe that will get you jacking. Then Ineffekt Azalea's version of 'Fisher's Theme' takes things in a more trippy, mellow breakbeat direction without losing that necessary punch for the party people.

Review: Following up great efforts by the likes of Van Bonn & Luis Baltes, Unknown and Shadow-Area, here is the debut LP from Hamburg's Achim Maerz on Berlin-based Freund der Familie. Relief features a wide selections of moods and grooves; from the cavernous and glacial deep house of 'Black Hole', the contemplative ambient journey of 'Dream', plus there's more deepness of the emotive variety offered up on 'Changing Weather', the understated late night mood of 'Memories' and the mesmerising closer 'On The Way' awash in dazzling layers of rich synth tones in the vein of classic Chicago sounds. Mastering by Sven Weisemann.

Review: The intriguingly entitled Seafoam Fiction label serves up a second super good, super limited 12" that takes in Detroit style house, deeply atmospheric ambient cuts, and some leftfield styles, all from the founder SL Jung. 'A Cushioned Reminder' pairs curious melodies that have you gazing off to the distance with soft kicks and an implied deep house rhythm that seems to roll along the ocean floor. The equally unusual but enticing 'Blue Freak' has more weird and wonderful sounds making for a musical and perfectly reduced deep house mood piece. Last of all, 'Inland Delta' is slightly more traditional with a dusty kick clap combo and rolling drums overloaded with gorgeously molten melodies.

Review: Norken's Southern Soul EP is one of the finest deep house 12"s to have ever been made if you ask us. That's why it is back once again with another remastered reissue. The master studio craftsman knows exactly how many elements he needs to make a deep, immersive groove and never does he use a single hi-hat more. His Southern Soul EP has been reissued a number of times before including by the likes of Delsin but now its title track gets remastered for this fresh serving on Only One. It is all wispy synths and cosmic motifs with bendy bass, then 'P Fox' picks things up with another rolling rhythm and dub kicks topped off with astral synths. 'Spring Time' closes with crunchier tech house drums and a more quickened groove but is still as deep.

Review: Casino Times is a London-based project of producers Joseph Spencer & Nicholas Church; a partnership that is rooted in house & techno since 2010. The duo have released on labels like Wolf Music, Mireia and their own Casino Edits. This one's courtesy of Swdens Omena imprint, the new label run by Tooli of Local Talk fame. A Change In Motion Part 2 sees the pair enter a new phase sonically, experimenting with the more experimental side of the spectrum. There's some punchy and futuristic electro to be heard on 'Ultra Synthetic' and 'Unfold', as well as sublime downbeat offerings like 'Tides' and 'Run Mods' and some swung-off kilter beats offered up on 'Something Else' (feat DUANE).

Review: Many people's first taste of Nocow was amid the second half of the dubstep era - a time when boundaries between established genres and more explorative, contemporary and adventurous beats were blurring, feeding directly into the beautiful mess we see before us today in the dance music scene. Since then, he has graced us with a raft of excellent work which, much like the ethics of the time he emerged from, never really stand still or regurgitate. The difference between Odinocow and 2017's Ledyanoy Album is a case in point. Whereas then we were going through sounds that owed much to 1990s ambient techno, IDM, and associated noises, here we take a very different path, with a haunted R&B undertone running throughout the work, and plenty of nods to polished beach house, trance, and chill wave.

Review: Washington DC's James Bangura really stands out from the rest with his truly singular take on electronic music that's appeared of late on labels like Incienso, World Building and Holding Hands. His latest comes courtesy of legendary German imprint !K7 Titled 'Harrar', a frantic and hyper aware experiment in off-the-grid post dubstep that will totally flip your mind. Over on the second side he goes for something more straightforward in the form 'Witness Dub' an emotive deep house cut that's perfect for the late night.