OPM: Electronic Music Everywhere

Mike and Mandy – Shelter in Place

A four-track EP of trip-hop leaning indie pop, steeped in smoky atmosphere and dipped in psychedelia for a sparkling finish. Each track reveals a different, but complementary, vibe that contributes to the EP’s overall energy. Things kick off with a lush take on indie pop, with a sultry female vocal, a slow strutting beat and the borderline twee accompaniment (pretty sure that’s a ukulele I’m hearing…), all cemented together with some gorgeous production flourishes. 

The second track, “Wormhole,” leans into the dub influences, with its heavy low end, reggae-touched rhythms and embrace of the space echo. “Tesseract” is glittering space disco, slowed down to a syrupy pace to better appreciate the details, while “Ricochet” kicks things up a notch for a strong finish with just a hint of punk energy. It’s a wide swathe of influences but the coherent songwriting vision and trippy production manage to hold it all together.  

(Listened to the entire EP)

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Mr. Roswell’s Neighborhood – “Nowhere Alive”

Subtle, hook-laden IDM that dips into experimental sound design and somehow delivers genuinely catchy results. The star of this show is no doubt the clever lead sound, which is fizzy and tortured sounding but also a fine vehicle to deliver the sinuous and irresistible lead line. 

As a sound design nerd it had my head spinning trying to figure out exactly what’s going on, but even if you don’t care about that stuff you’re still gonna think it sounds cool as hell. The rest of the track is no slouch either, with subdued breakbeats and some lovely synth bass and ear candy providing a perfect accompaniment. 

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Kurt Leege – Title Pools

New school Frippertronics imbued with notes of shoegaze and post rock. This definitely sounds to me like somebody crashed the Fripp/Eno albums into instrumental demos from My Bloody Valentine’s Loveless era, and that’s a formula I can definitely sign off on. 

I don’t know if the post rock vibe is intentional, or just a natural side effect of layering this many detuned and effected guitars together. Either way, it’s pretty tasty. According to the detailed liner notes this was all played on guitar, thru a substantial pedal board, and into a looper, with minimal mixing and post production – an impressive achievement, especially given how coherent, focused and listenable the album is. 

(Listened to the entire album)

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Demiurgo – Daidalos

Classic sounding electronica that fuses the best of Berlin School and early IDM tropes into a rich, evocative set of instrumental tunes. The clean sequences and lush string pads of early Tangerine Dream nestle beautifully alongside fuzzy flurries of rhythmic plucks straight off of early Warp records releases. 

The importance of melody is never forgotten, even if it sometimes has to take a backseat to the gorgeously hypnotic delay-soaked arpeggios. This is electronic-music comfort food, combining some of the best and most universally appealing elements of its many subgenres into a warm, welcoming blanket of music and sound. 

(Listened to the entire EP)

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Prime Birds – “The WHMIS Monster”

Chiptune and heavy riff rock fuse together for a fist-pumping anthem worthy of the very finest Sega CD game soundtrack. Honestly, it’s just about as simple as that – the low end is your standard ‘90s heavy rock beat, with thumping drum and a simple bassline. The next layer up you’ll find your chugging guitars, also straight out of the late ‘90s, and then the cherry on top – chiptune leads and arpeggios that really give the track a reason to live.

It’s a fun combo, and if you like that ‘90s riffrock side of things more than the Zeldaesque chip melodies, check out the rest of the Prime Birds catalog, which (hard rock) parties like it’s 1999 forever.

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