Ten Million Sounds – Finding Time
We’ve been featuring fewer and fewer electronic-based trip hop artists on BB lately, a fact that I’m confounded by. I don’t know if I’ve set the bar a bit too high, or if the genre simply doesn’t interest me as much as it used to. I’ve been reluctant to give a good hard listen to even Emancipator’s...
Raycord – Ruban-Ruban
Seemingly simplistic in its presentation, Raycord‘s debut album Ruban-Ruban makes a strong case that nothing is ever how it appears. On first glance, Ruban-Ruban puts on a good show – slow, trip-hop beats chug the rhythm along, while electronic glitches and blips help to accent the atmospheric overtones. It’s all par for the course in...
Shipwrek – Journal
Dramatic, gripping soundtracks aren’t reserved only for great films or video games. As Shipwrek‘s debut album teaches us, they can just as easily find a home in our everyday lives. Journal is just that, a log of events frozen in time and translated into music. The album began as a simple project used to chronicle...
Darren Korb – Bastion Soundtrack
Bastion is a single player adventure game featuring some classic gameplay with a new-age twist, and is complemented by an eclectically original soundtrack. On its own, the game stands as one of my favorites of the past few years. Combining the gameplay with the soundtrack’s obscure mixture of folk, trip hop and blues; however, made...
Dirty Art Club – Hexes
Dry, dusty dub is alive and well in the Dirty Art Club. Composed by producers Madwreck and Matt Cagle, Hexes is the duo’s second release on the slick Phonosaurus Records (Berry Weight, Astrid Engberg). The EP, while replete with seething electronic undertones, sports a refreshing fusion of instrumental hip-hop, lounge and cinema. Hexes swallows you...
Mokhov – Perfect Dream
Mokhov’s Perfect Dream marks his second atmospherically infused electronic effort (atmospherica?). Add in the fact that it was released less than a year after his debut record, it’s safe to say that this musician is nothing short of prolific. Overall, Perfect Dream successfully avoids the dreaded “sophomore slump” by expanding on what makes Mokhov’s music...
Tycho – Dive
I find it absolutely breathtaking when artists have the ability to properly portray the context of their music through album covers, titles, and even color palettes. While not a hugely decisive characteristic in how good the album sounds per se, it can cause an album to cross the nebulous line in my brain that exists...
FNDMNTL – Dubtraktion
Dubtraktion’s opener “Bodega Dub” calls to mind a dank concrete basement – no windows, a slight fragrance of mildew, a single light bulb swinging from the smooth ceiling. Below the bulb sits the drummer, carrying along at his deliberate clip while the guitarist picks the subtleties from his nylon strings. Ambient textures fill the room,...
Kinack – Ondas
It can be a slippery slope to make music that not only borrows from your influences, but on first listen, can sound nearly identical to them. This is a conundrum faced by many musicians, as without having your own unique take on the genre, you stand to sound like an inferior copycat and risk being...
