Impressions on: Ludique - The Road

Feels like: relaxed, calm, mysterious, introspective, spacious, solemn

This is an interesting album that took my fancy by meshing the ideas and sensibilities of ambient and downtempo music with the beats and structures of dance music. Not to say we haven't all seen this before but this album really has a charming sound of its own with plenty of cool synth sounds and memorable melodies. One could, however, accuse the album of feeling quite samey between tracks and dragging on past its welcome.

My thoughts on songs:

"Cherry Blossom" start off with some sort of mysterious sounding chords lined with a bit of white noise which was perhaps a bit boring alone but as the song progresses on a larger host of melodies and sounds step in and really compliment the chords well. The melody that kicks in just past the 3 minute mark is especially surprising; it's really odd and unexpected but has a great effect on the track going on.

"Hazy Eyes" offers something different to the plate with some really epic and cinematic sounding synth string melodies that remind me a lot of trance music. But instead of a cheesy thumpy trance beat we are given a beat that is less obvious: slow and angry over a huge wash of synth pads high and low. The end result is really quite haunting.

"Blauw" is a track with a blend of rhythmic percussion that gets you moving against all will. Beyond the beat is a spacious collage of piano, bass, vocal samples and synths, though without the droning pads you usually hear on this album but not without the solemn feeling. In the second half of the track a new vocal sample is added to the loop that picks the track up a notch and makes it quite touching and memorable.

"Lantern Fly" is a track towards the end of the album that stood out to me for its simple but effective musical ideas. A four to the floor beat and a chord progression (played by a bright and innocent sounding synth) start off the track, with more layers coming on later into the track (a common trick on this album) to really beef it up into something big, bright and sentimental, reminding me of the feeling you get when you have to say goodbye to someone.

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Impressions on: York Morgan - EP001

Feels like: gloom, fun, in the city, strange, innocent, introspective, personal

EP001 offers us a rather short but very inspired and sweet experience filled with wondrous synth lines, fantastic use of chopped up vocal samples on top of beats inspired my modern trap and future beat style music, only with less loudness and excitement, replaced by more charm and compassion.

My thoughts on songs:

In contrast to the title, "Nights"offers a plate of bright and twinkling synth melodies and high pitched, childlike vocal samples on top of fun trap style beats. The juxtaposition between the carefree sound of the song and the blead phrases such as "are you feeling suicidal today?" and "my life has no meaning" create a simplified but touching picture of night time in a city and how different perspectives experience it.

"Zoe" is a major change of pace in this EP compared to the sound of the first 3 tracks, jumping straight in with some extremely loud distorted pads and heavily treated vocals. If this track is to introduce Zoe then I would think of her as a compassionate, special person who isn't at all shy.

"Silent" finishes the short EP off on a quieter note, similar to how it begun. Light handed percussion, low but warm chord pads and wonky voices and sounds create a sonic collage of a lonely corner of the city, deep into the night, as seen on the album cover.

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Impressions on: Christopher Laidler - This Is A Test

Feels like: gloomy, introverted, fun, spacey, dreamy, dark, upbeat

This is a wicked electronic, sort-of-dancey EP I bumped into on Bandcamp the other day which I think is pretty easy to get into and it really has an identity of its own. The whole thing is only about 15 minutes long so you have no good reason not to.

My thoughts on songs:

The second song "This Is A Test" starts off with a slow and dark feel but then it transitions seamlessly into these heavily processed robotic vocals and a four to the floor dance beat.

"09:35" is introduced with this really great sounding chord progression being played by a really warm synth sound that I like a lot. However there is this section toward the end of the song where all the melodies are dropped and there are just drums and bleeps which sounds like it might go down well in a club or something but it doesn't really sit well with me.

"Freezing" (featuring Sat Up And Begged, presumably performing vocals) starts off sounding so so fantastic, a sort of dark and lonely but still super glossy and catchy sounding pop song complete with female vocals but instead of continuing on from the intro with more juicy music the song just ends, having lasted all of 45 seconds. I'm not sure if this was a purposeful decision or the song just wasn't finished but I reckon it'd have sounded great if it was developed further into a longer tune.

"A Comedown" is pretty neat, I like a lot of the timbres in here, especially the sort of lo-fi, fuzzy sounding pads and some of the organic noises thrown in (I think I heard a cough in the end? It was cool).

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