Ambient/Drone charts

Review: Lithuania's Greyscale label has knocked it out of the park with its first nine releases and now this 10th follows that same high-class pattern. It finds the revered Submersion - of labels like Silent Season and Milieu Music - serving up more of his textbook deep ambient dives, with elongated synth craft and heady atmospheres all sinking you into a mindful state. The rainy day feel of the tracks and their misty pads is offset by constant subtle hints of hope and optimism in the ever-shifting melodies. It makes for an uplifting and deeply moving listen that you will keep on coming back to for more.

Review: Given his impressive track record - his releases have been championed by such luminaries as Peggy Gou, Shanti Celeste and Ben UFO - it would be fair to say that 'Reclaim', Pepe's first album since 2016, is hotly anticipated. It was apparently inspired by the idea of a 'human free future' where the Earth has been allowed to re-wild itself. With this concept as a reference, the album's blend of spring-fresh synthesiser melodies, summery textures, ambient-leaning soundscapes, sample-rich electronic experiments and dancefloor ready grooves (there are nods to ambient house, deep house, electro and UK bass) makes perfect sonic sense. More importantly, it's a hugely enjoyable album that stands out as one carefully considered, admirably executed piece of work. In other words, it could well turn out to be one of the electronic albums of 2023.

Review: Laima Adelaide's new 12" on Shahr Farang is as deft as sound design gets. The hugely limited 12" is all about quiet artistry and mastering the small things. The A-side 'Empty Mind' is a delightfully sparse and empty yet potent piece with supple, suggestive rhythms and sustained chords that are grainy and lo-fi. It's amazing just how absorbing such little sound can be. 'Pattern' then takes up the whole of the flip with a more pulsing and dynamic rhythm but the whole tune still seems to float through space with distant starry twinkles, deep space energies and a hopeful sense of melodic beauty.

Review: The unstoppable dub techno and ambient label Greyscale seems to drop new music each week. This time it is BT Gate X-138's 'kV Pylon' that serves as the musical vehicle to take us on a trip through rich sonic landscapes and an array of emotions. Over seventy sublime and spacious minutes, this vital CD goes from grainy and lo-fi moodiness on the opener to explorations of the ocean floor on '330kV Test' via gloriously uplifting and optimistic pieces of melodic beauty such as '330kV Test'. It is another triumph from a label and artist that will find favour with all techno and ambient lovers.

Review: This record is named after Vedanta, an ancient philosophy based on the Vedas, the sacred scriptures of India. The music, originally composed and produced by Joseph S Joyce and later remixed by Sebastian Mullaert of Minilogue, was greatly inspired, after reading commentaries from Swami Rama Tirtha's biography "The Scientist & Mahatma" - Chapter 1 - Vedanta and The Secret of Success. Now, some nine years later, it gets served up as a remix EP. There's a dark El Choop Reconstruct, a gorgeous ambient version from Sebastian Mullaert, a minimal headscape from Van Bonn, Federson SF goes warm and dubby and then a crisp, tech-edged vibe from Paul 90 ends the EP in style.

Review: The more discerning and concentrated electro head will be tuned into the work of Bot1500. It is an alias of Shinichi Kobayashi, a producer who since 2018 has landed on the likes of Analogical Force and Furthur Electronix with a unique mix of futurist sounds. This one is another brilliant EP featuring cuts like 'Chartreuse 8.' It's a propulsive rhythm built from silky breaks and overlaid with the sort of heart-aching and thought-provoking chords that will send you inward on the dance floor. The five other cuts are just as much a perfect mix of the physical and the cerebral.

Review: 'PULSE 01' is the first release in PITP's new series, which is an ongoing exploration of ambient tech, while offering a more structured display of beat-driven ambient music. Pulse 01 features brand new tracks by SYNE and Influx.

SYNE is Dennis Huddleston from the UK, who is most recognized for his ambient work as 36. He returns to his SYNE alias for the first time in nearly 5 years, with only his second record since his 2017 self-titled debut LP.

'Dystalgia' is a 12 minute opus, spread over 3 movements. Soaring pads and razor sharp percussion combine for a dynamic, emotionally charged journey in sound. Showing love to the Detroit greats, but recognising the distinct UK influence which made him fall in love with Techno in the early 90's, it's a surprising pivot in Dennis' sound and one which all lovers of beautiful, melodic ambient techno should enjoy.

Influx is the techno/acid/trance moniker of James Bernard. With his first release in 1993 (Braineater EP on Sapho Records), Influx is no stranger to techno and acid. This project had been in hibernation for nearly 14 years until his 2021 remixes for his collaborative album with 36 and awakened souls (The Other Side of Darkness). Revel Dub is a dub-techno excursion with sprinkles of ambient and psy-trance rounding out the frequencies. The Slow Version dials back the tempo to half-time and travels to more ambient dub territories.

Review: 'PULSE 01' is the first release in PITP's new series, which is an ongoing exploration of ambient tech, while offering a more structured display of beat-driven ambient music. Pulse 01 features brand new tracks by SYNE and Influx.

SYNE is Dennis Huddleston from the UK, who is most recognized for his ambient work as 36. He returns to his SYNE alias for the first time in nearly 5 years, with only his second record since his 2017 self-titled debut LP.

'Dystalgia' is a 12 minute opus, spread over 3 movements. Soaring pads and razor sharp percussion combine for a dynamic, emotionally charged journey in sound. Showing love to the Detroit greats, but recognising the distinct UK influence which made him fall in love with Techno in the early 90's, it's a surprising pivot in Dennis' sound and one which all lovers of beautiful, melodic ambient techno should enjoy.

Influx is the techno/acid/trance moniker of James Bernard. With his first release in 1993 (Braineater EP on Sapho Records), Influx is no stranger to techno and acid. This project had been in hibernation for nearly 14 years until his 2021 remixes for his collaborative album with 36 and awakened souls (The Other Side of Darkness). Revel Dub is a dub-techno excursion with sprinkles of ambient and psy-trance rounding out the frequencies. The Slow Version dials back the tempo to half-time and travels to more ambient dub territories.

Review: A repress here of 2019's under the radar 'Box EP by The enigmatic British producer JS Zeiter, who executed more greyscale dub techno excursions of a typically high caliber on this one. After some spookily sensual ASMR action on intro 'The Code' he continues to build the suspense on the beatless Subarctic Soundscape of 'Darkness Falls' before dropping the power on the cavernous and glacial beats of 'On The Moor'. Flip over and take on more of the frozen seascape on the deeply hypnotic groove of "Empty" before one more emotional ambient outro in the form of 'Endgame'.

Review: After a run of reissues and a boundary-blurring fusion of classical music and electronica (January 2021's Angel's Flight), Norwegian ambient veteran Geir Jennsen AKA Biosphere has gone back to basics on Shortwave Memories. Ditching software and computers for analogue synths, drum machines and effects units, Jennsen has delivered album that he claims was inspired by the post-punk era electronics of Daniel Miller and Matin Hannett, but instead sounds like a new, less dancefloor-conscious take on the hybrid ambient/techno sound he was famous for in the early 1990s. The results are uniformly brilliant, making this one of the Norwegian trailblazer's most alluring and sonically comforting albums for decades.

Review: Tom Middleton and Mark Pritchard created a landmark of ambient music when they released 76:14 back in the 90s. Their Global Communication project was never just about ambient though, and it also coursed through deep house and more besides. In the spirit of progress, Middleton has returned to thinking about the project from a contemporary perspective, stepping forth as GCOM with the epic scope of E2 XO. From stirring orchestral suites to high octane DSP, it's an expansive listening experience that shows Middleton pushing himself into new terrain in the studio. Whether you tie it back to the prior material or not, it's a towering piece of work from an elder statesman of UK electronica.

Review: Kosmogonik offers up a top debut album here packed with fresh ambient, techno, house and electronic deepness. Polyverse has nine exploratory cuts that take you on a real trip through the cosmos, right from the suspensory opening chords of the prelude. After that come the lean and elegant Detroit techno lines of 'Oscillating Grids' and the far-sighted cosmic bliss of 'Orion'. 'New Ground Galactica' is about as delightful and wondrous as electro gets and lovers of breakbeats will find plenty to get excited about on 'Astronomicon' with its smeared chords and colour alien details. A gorgeous album of well-crafted electronic escapism.

Review: UK techno mainstay Kirk Degiorgio has made a lot of great music over the years, much of it under the machine soul/tech-jazz-inspired As One alias. His latest EP is another typically impeccable slab of Motor City inspired tech-soul brilliance. Lead cut 'The Unveiling' is deep, gently uplifting, gloriously spacey and effortlessly far-sighted, bringing bags of emotion as well as authentically crunchy machine drums, immersive pads and awe-inspiring melodies. He opts for an enveloping, otherworldly ambient techno/IDM sound on 'Descend Module', with discordant notes and hallucinatory acid lines riding high in the mix. The EP also boasts two reworks of previously released cuts. Ian O'Brien goes ultra-deep and gently breakbeat-driven on a superb revision of 'The Ladder', before Luke Slater drops a hypnotic, ultra-deep revision of 'Absorption Spectra' as The 7th Plain.

Review: After being commissioned to produce several 'interlocking' ambient pieces for an art gallery piece in LA, Brian Foote and Sage Caswell decided to take the concept of 'audience crossfading' to the next level, creating an entire ambient album using a particular sonic technique. Over five long pieces from 'Waterwheel' to 'Smiley', their aim was to evoke the feeling of bodies moving in thoroughfares. The tracks are long-exposed movements captured in ambient space, blending rhythms and soundscapes for chillout rooms that exist only in memory now.

Review: The KMA60 Rezpektiva label is dedicated to dreamy electro and techno made on machines and headed for the stars. After past voyages from the likes of Opik, Denia and The Necromorph, it's the turn of Quaid to plot the course and he does so in fine style with some achingly beautiful synth work and crisp beat constructions. Just listen to the celestial arps and hi-tech jazz pads of 'Fusbares', all carried aloft by a dexterous bit of breakbeat programming. 'Cascade' meanwhile is a perfect counterpoint full of cascading bleeps and intricately criss-crossing patterns which serve as a true feast for the ears. If you love that early 90s backroom techno sound, you're going to love this record.

Review: Lithuanian label Greyscale's full-length catalogue is back with another doozy and this one comes from Japanese dub techno don Silentwave. Dub Melancolia lays out a dynamic vision across 11 slick tracks that all add up to a superb cinematic experience. Each of the deeply hypnotic cuts are detailed with exquisite additions like moody strings, celestial melodies and wintery pads. Label owner grad_u also appears with a remix of his own and further highlights com from the emotional 'Indigenous Dance' and 'Eden', a stylish sunning mid-tempo melody peaker. This one goes way beyond the dancefloor.

Review: LILA mainstay Ayaavaaki and ambient veteran Purl speak different languages but used a translator to convey ideas to one another as they made this record. And they very much foment their own unique musical language on Ancient Skies, an album that blends ambient, drone and space music into richly layered soundscapes that are constantly on the move. Each piece is meticulously crafted and suspense you up amongst the clouds, hazing on at the smeared pads and swirling solar winds that prop you up. It's a record that would work as well in the depths of winter as a bright spring day such is the cathartic effect of the sounds. Beautiful, thought-provoking and innovative, this is as good an ambient record as we have heard all year.

Review: Fresh, cruddy electro dreamatics from mysterious production outfit Lazer Worshippers here, joining the Atmosphere label to stake their claim to their very own 'theme'. A name like Lazer Worshippers gives off vibes of a apparent machine cult with a penchant for building sonic monuments to our AI-mech overlords. The music is similarly vaunting and numinous, with its synthetic choirs and trilling arps dancing between the left and rights like heavenly visions of a mechanized future. B-siders 'On A Rise' and 'Free Flight' are just as teary-eyed, yet bleepy, recalling the entrancing, oldskool breaksy trance work of Spooky or Digital Justice.

Review: Irish artist Outlier is in fine form here as he sets out n a mission to explore a panoply of genres in a new double 12" for Appian Sounds. Alaya is an immediately immersive listen from the first moment the first pads of 'Suspend' smear out around you. There is a deftness to the barely there dub rhythms of 'Moabit, 022017' which means the track plays out like a half remembered dream and 'Worshipper' is suspensory ambient with only the lightest cosmic signifiers for company. That reserved and tender artistry continues even on more beat driven cuts like the gorgeous 'Svagatam'.

Review: David Moufang's legacy of works is vast beyond compare, so it's not surprising in these reissue-rich times his work continues to enjoy a fresh outing. Of course that's equally down to the quality of what he's been making as Move D and otherwise since the early 90s, and there are some projects even getting a second independent reissue such as this rare gem from 1995, Solitaire. Originally released under that alias on Pete Namlook's seminal Fax +49 label, Solitaire also came out credited to Moufang himself in 2010, but now it's getting its first vinyl pressing courtesy of Mule Musiq in Japan. From the original long-form version of 'In/Out' to the wistful bubble bath wonderment of 'P.M.', it's quintessential 90s ambient techno made by one of the best to be doing it then and now.

Review: Subset makes a welcome return to Greyscale with his second full-length album after the success that was This Quiet Earth. The follow-up, Ambient Particles, is another widescreen work of great cinematic details that again showcase Sunset's studio skills. The track titles give an insight into his thinking behind the music with the likes of 'Sandstorm on Mars' swirl of textured pads over baron landscapes of undulating bass and 'Cocooned Under the Stars' feels adrift in the endless darkness of space with only distant twinkling pads for company. Elsewhere 'Chains In The Wind' is a spacious and dubby ambient techno trip and 'Ambient Particles' brings a little more movement with its rolling drums. A sophisticated and soothing album once more from Subset.

Review: Sanderson Dear's Stasis Recordings released the original Time Capsule compilation in 2020 - a 20-track exploration of ten different ambient techno artists exploring two ideas each in compact form for a box set of 7"s. Now the label has revisited some of the project's standout moments and offered a chance to enjoy extended versions gathered on a single 12". From Maps Of Hyperspace shaping out atmospheric halls of synth work on 'Beta' to Glo Phase offering some gorgeous, sparkling grooves on 'Fire Flies', there's plenty of ground covered on this release. Of course the mighty John Beltran is a big drawer too, and his typically stellar 'The Descendent' doesn't disappoint in its full extended version.

Review: US-based, South Africa-born Brendon Moeller has been hugely prolific over the years under sever different aliases. Pathways is his newest album and is another signature blend of deep techno, dub, and ambient sounds that explore fresh ground. This one comes on cassette - a fitting medium for his always hazy, lo-fi sounds, and opens with a gorgeous stargazer loosely tethered to a dreamy groove. 'Movement' is just much of a cosmic floater, 'Accident' has static electricity fizzing about an underwater chamber and 'Through' is a slow-motion dubscape. 'Exodus' and 'Calm' close out this beautifully unhurried exploration of the deep.