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Illogic & Blockhead – Capture The Sun

Underground MC Illogic has united with producer Blockhead to make some old school hip-hop with a clear voice to it.

The tracks on this album give me vibes from older Atmosphere albums, including the lyrical content and flow of Illogic is even close to Slug in some ways. Each song is consistent and has a lot of fun beats that can be expected by this point with Blockhead on them. It’s exciting to see a lot of variety in the genre right now, with artists bringing back a particular 90s sound right here while others are going in all kinds of directing. Most of all if you want to hear great chemistry between an artist and producer look no further.

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Barn Owl – “Void Redux”

Barn Owl – Void Redux from Thrill Jockey Records on Vimeo.

Atmospheric electronic duo Barn Owl brings out a new sprawling track with a unique video to back it.

The song shows the mood and ice cold electronics that Barn Owl is capable of and stretches it out into a song that forces your mind adrift. It has a mystical sense to with a spacey drumming and circling keys that fade in and out. A very sonic experience no doubt.

The video brings out those daydream like sequences with an added retro feel due to the use of a super 8 camera, it fits the song perfectly.

V is available for pre-order right now on Thrill Jockey Records.

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Julianna Barwick – “Pacing”

Julianna Barwick definitely knows how to create an atmosphere with her music that is absolutely heavenly.

As with all of the music she produces “Pacing” makes me feel as though I am going to start floating at any moment. Whisking me away to a place where I am floating through the clouds or rather resting upon them like they are individual fluffy pillows. This is analogy may have gone a bit too far, but this track brings it out with its warm acoustics and piano. Not to mention the soft sung background vocals for the added texture. All-in-all this is yet another enchanting song from Barwick.

There is a limited edition 7″ available on Suicide Squeeze so go jump on that! 

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Folo- The Secret Message

Folo is a folk and electronic (folktronic?) group that hails from Israel. Now I wasn’t really expecting to hear a blending of genres like these two, but what has been developed is something wonderfully atmospheric and eerie. The way that Folo uses vocal harmonies and electronic sampling creates a tense uneasy mood that I am particularly fond of. Though they are not the first band to have this kind of tone to their music it feels especially original here. It may be a part of living in Israel; having different sounds and feelings to bring into their art. Whatever it may be they pulled it off very well, I can see the influences of more recent Radiohead songs here, but I feel like these guys are much more successful than Radiohead has been of late in capturing this style of sound. You should definitely check this album out if nothing else it is a compelling listen all the way through.

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Pinkish Black- Self Titled LP

Pinkish Black is a new wave duo heavily influenced by the world of doom metal. Using these two styles they manage to create a pretty unique atmosphere with their music. The name of the project itself seems to accurately describe the type of music on display here. The main feeling is of total all encompassing darkness in a old horror movie sense. This is thanks to the incredibly haunting vocals and slow muddy guitar and drums, but then there is a great deal of synthesizers put to use that add an extra stylized tint of pink to the whole experience. The electronics give these songs a lot of personality and are really the key piece in the puzzle of making them compelling.

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Jermainesoul- Observatory

UK producer Jermainesoul has released a 5-track tape, calling it Observatory. The productions featured here provide a lot of atmosphere with spaced out percussion and warm synthesizers fading in and out. The tracks featured here lead my imagination to take think of the emptiness of space and the vastness of it all. This is an effect I have to assume he intended to capture with the title and artwork for the release, if so he has done it exceptionally well.

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Peaking Lights- “Lo Hi”

First single from Wisconsin dub duo, Peaking Lights off their upcoming LP Lucifer. This track brings a real spacey atmosphere to the reggae style of music they are presenting. The song has the classic expected flow to a reggae song with a real groovy bass line, but they layer it with countless synthesizers, echoed vocal tracks, and samples giving it a more psychedelic feel than most songs in the genre. It runs for 7 over minutes and by the end the psychedellic nature of the songs takes control.

Lucifer is set to be released June 18.

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Tim Hecker- “Suffocation Raga for John Cale”

A track has been released from the upcoming Record Store Day release of John Cale remixes from his Extra Playful EP. This Tim Hecker track is an ambient song filled with layers of humming synthesizers at multiple tones, hitting some really dark frequencies in order to create a heavy atmosphere. The song progresses through different arrangements of these synths while keeping that dark, atmospheric mood consistent throughout.

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Spank Rock- “Car Song” ft. Santigold (Shabazz Palaces Remix)

Shabazz Palaces has done a remix for the upcoming Spank Rock remix album. They revised the track “Car Song,” taking its catchy dance elements and making them feel more atmospheric. Shabazz Palaces showed its ability to make fresh, trippy production with last year’s Black Up. With this song, the project has shown that it can show that can combine its dense, abstract production with some dance grooves.

E. I. B. A. E. I. A. F. L. REMiXES is set to be released April 10th

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I Come To Shanghai- “Tied Down”

A video for the short, new I Come To Shanghai song “Tied Down,” which was made by splicing together footage from old VHS tapes. The images come from a variety of sources, and they’re all colorfully distorted for a psychedelic effect. Despite the lack length, the song here builds a beautiful and impressive atmosphere. It’s easy to just get lost in the synthesizers, but the lyrics are worth paying attention to as well.

Eternal Life Volume 2 is available now for purchase on the project’s Bandcamp.