survey of the electroscape – Issue 9

A diverse collection of albums. Never the exception. Always the norm.

Explore. Discover.

Albums are in alphabetical order.

Airports and Ports by Hunter Complex

Airports and Ports is the latest release by Hunter Complex, following the highly acclaimed, Dead Calm and Zero Degrees. An ambient electronic album where piano, flute, trumpet, and guitar create a new age atmosphere with jazz elements, hypnotic rhythms, set in surreal and mysterious spaces you are invited to venture into. The album is a living experience, embarking on a great expedition in a pastel-colored sea made of layers of rhythms and atmospheric synths, where each song plays like a chapter in a story book with unexpected twists, turns, adventure, and landscapes. The mood in each story is accentuated by spontaneous lead piano and trumpet melodies and a dusting of psychedelic retrofuture tones. A limited-edition vinyl release of Airports and Ports is available at Burning Witches Records here.

Gang by Venator

Venator continues to explore new territory in his musical projects, one with soul, R&B, rap, and electro elements on his latest EP, Gang, which is a showcase for an impressive set of collaborations. Venator harnesses unconventional songwriting and elegantly integrates a range of styles on Gang, featuring emotionally gripping vocals, reverberating synths, hard-hitting beats, gritty bass lines, hypnotic rhythms, head-splitting textures, euphoric moods, and lyricism with themes of love and longing. Read our take on the April EP, Darling, and have a listen here.

Growth and Decay by Floating Shrine

Floating Shrine aptly titled their album Growth and Decay. These two opposing forces are ever-present. In the cover art, for instance, shades of pink and blue above contrast with the shadow and darkness below. The soundscape is built from layers of textures and sounds that come and go almost without notice, embodying opposing forces. The listener hears the whispering of the wind, the swelling of ocean waves, and gentle melodies that serenade, but underneath the deep humming indicates something ominous, the sound of scraping walls with metal tools tells you something disembodied lurks, growing too powerful to ignore. The songwriting, too, elicits great emotion as new layers of sound emerge and others fade away – one moment you are peacefully strolling along the lake shore, basking in the sun and, suddenly, you are lost, anxiously running through empty fields under dark skies, only to find who you were looking for all along and now feeling safe and secure. Cassette and print of the cover art are available here.

Knives by Dan Dave Larson

Knives is the first solo release of Dan Dave Larson, long-time member of the Elay Arson project. The songwriting is theatrical and populated with seamless transitions into vast landscapes of uncharted territory with delicately orchestrated arrangements of throbbing percussion barreling through wounded blood vessels, bass lines play by spirit, ravaging guitar riffs, fist-pumping anthems, and guitar and piano solos of shattering and reconstructing ourselves. Most striking on Knives is what the music conveys through its emotion – something raw, honest, liberating, and transformative, like a flower growing from battle-scarred soil under once black skies that are now beginning to open up.

Meow at the Moon by Cat Temper

Meow at the Moon plays like a soundtrack to a vintage Halloween comic book that has come to life, telling the story of an ancient curse that has turned neighborhood cats into gnarly beasts under the full moon! Cat Temper has created an ominous atmosphere of pulsating bass lines, thumping beats, and haunting synth melodies, sure to thrill, run shivers up your spine, and prompt you to double check the flashlight has fresh batteries. Meow at the Moon is peppered with retrofuture and cleverly modulated synth sounds the artist has become known for creating, but on Meow the Moon these sounds do more than just accentuate the spooky atmosphere – they animate it. The cover art by Stephen Von Frankenstein has a striking vintage character that perfectly matches the sound, and the back cover art of the limited-edition moon-colored vinyl release of the album is simply classic, which you can purchase here.

NOT OK by Mecha Maiko

Mecha Maiko continues to forge new territory with each release, and NOT OK sits in an undefined space where out-of-the-box production shines. The spacious soundscape is noticeably built around new, interesting, and unique sounds with an incredible range of textures that are used to create melodies and set against rhythms of pulsating beats and strobing bass lines. Mecha Maiko’s vocal prowess is on full display, vocals that fearlessly teeter on the edge, looking down, pulling from the pit below inquisitive, thought-provoking, and introspective lyrics that unpack moments into a full life. This quality gives the album a striking vulnerable mood, one that feels honest and easy to connect with, all packaged in an undeniable pop sensibility. Vinyl, cassette, and other physical copies of NOT OK are available here, and read our take on Mecha Maiko’s stunning April 2022 release, Let’s, and have a listen here.  

Paradise by Neaon

Neaon is exquisite at creating open landscapes to roam, and atmospheres that are fluid, ethereal, and otherworldly, all of which are on display on her latest release, Paradise. The soundscape is built from atmospheric synths, anthemic melodies, pulsating bass lines, and spellbinding rhythms. The songwriting plays like a voyage that rolls along the icy, rocky peaks of the mountain tops rising from the lands of faraway places as much as it dwells in the lush, green valleys, where magic is happening beneath the canopy of a digital forest. Revisit Neaon’s prior full-length release, A Year To Remember, for an equally majestic experience. Read our take on the album here.

Private Garden by Alpha Chrome Yayo

Alpha Chrome Yayo’s latest release, Private Garden, is a companion to his 2021 contemplative release, Open House, donning stylistically similar art, this time inspired by the artist’s very own garden and Japanese water feature, called a sōzu. The album is impressively varied in sound and has gentle and inviting in nature. It offers the listener a range of moods and places to explore. The songs are populated with soothing melodies, rhythms that seemingly first pass through liquid mediums before reaching and massaging your brain. The songs are thoughtfully ordered, opening with the rhythmic sound of a sōzu, helping a restless mind begin to settle, followed by a collection of songs that elicit feelings of weightlessness, images of animated drops of water creating melodies as they drip, fall, and splash, and introduce adventurous and expansive spaces where one can appreciate the sun warming our minds, bodies, and hearts, enjoy a quiet moment to explore vast and expansive spaces, or dance alone or with another. In all the light, there are shadows, inviting us to explore the range of human experience. Read our in-depth story, Becoming Alpha Chrome Yayo, here, and discover the incredible scope of the artist’s discography.

S3RP3NT

S3RP3NT is named for the “serpent” which represents creative force and rebirth. It is a love letter to Los Angeles, the city, its ocean, and its trans people. The songwriting conveys stories of turmoil, redefinition, recreation, transformation, conflict, truth, lies, connection to self, connection to others, and harmony. So much shines on S3RP3NT, including the complexity with which the electronic textures and vocal loops are layered, and the emotional energy with which the songs are constructed, vicious as water colliding with hot oil and as gentle as the whispering of the wind through the leaves of trees. Read more about the artist and making of the album here.  

You Will Be Safe by Cory Kilduff

You Will Be Safe by Cory Kilduff exemplifies songwriting that begins by breaking everything down only to build it up, piece-by-piece, until a monstrous soundscape emerges, consuming the physical and psychological space. The melodies have emotional heft and are constructed from what feel like broken pieces, each with their own texture, pasted together, delicately layered on top of each other, while bass lines and percussion create entrancing rhythms. The cover art and sleeves included in the vinyl edition –  available for purchase at Burning Witches Records here – feel like a perfect representations of how the songs are constructed.