Categories
Ambient Beats Experimental Premiere

PREMIERE: Grey Skies – Heavy Burden

Flatland Frequencies · PREMIERE: Grey Skies – Heavy Burden

Here we have an exclusive premiere of ‘Heavy Burden’, from Greek musician Elias Smilios. Taken from his upcoming release as Grey Skies – Year is an album that creates wonderfully bent landscapes of mysterious worlds. More to come from this producer and this special album, soon on the blog. In the meantime, let this piece soundtrack the Autumn as it rolls in.

Categories
House Review Techno

Vanity Gamble – Back / Fourth

Digital reproduction and distribution freed music from the confines of physicality, possessing a piece of music no longer required the possession of a black or silver disk. But this evolution had its downside, music no longer developed in localized and unique scenes, and in an endless stream of new releases advantage is given to those with the largest PR budgets. More music ends up meaning less diversity and more sameyness, special hidden gems becoming instantly duplicated and downloaded on the click of a mobile phone.

Thankfully the culture of the finite but ultra-special lives on. Using modern technology which can cut music straight to vinyl, rather than to old-school acetate which wears out after only a few plays, a hardcore of enthusiast music producers and lathe trolls is keeping the secret world of the ultra-limited alive.

So who is Vanity Gamble? A newcomer or old hand under a new alias? Those that know, know. And this music is strictly for those that know. 25 copies, no digital, no PR and no Spotify. Get it from Japhy.

Categories
Art Culture Film

Gabriel Salcedo – Falls

Ambient, atmospheric landscape cinematography, the kind of thing we love at Flatland Frequencies.

Categories
Electro Review

Plant 43 – Storm Control EP

Plant43 – Release: 9th December 2020

Despite being the year that the dancefloors were closed, 2020 continues to be a good year for dancefloor music, this being the fourth release this year from Plant43 on the same-named label. Cold chords and deep melodic lines combine with driving beats to make something that is good for both listening and (home-based) dancing.

Categories
Electro Review

214 – Exposure to Winds

20/20 Vision – Release: 16th Nov / 8th December 2020

It takes talent and skills to produce an album where all the tracks are top quality. Chris Roman aka 214 has done just that. 8 tracks on vinyl or 12 on the digital, all of the premium quality.

From cold hauntological tones of ‘Alpenglow’ and ‘Break Before Dark’, to the minimally funky groove of ‘Quick Start’ the whole album remains an interesting and driving listen.

Inspiration for the album came from living in North Bend, Washington State, where David Lynch’s masterpiece ‘Twin peaks’ was filmed, an eerie sense of otherworldliness pervades all the tracks. One of the best albums of the year, top tip.

Categories
Ambient Experimental Review Synth

Miracle Pond – December Doubles!

ADVANCE WARNING: Miracle Pond are dropping two new cassettes on 4th December:

  • Plastic Moonrise (aka Catherine Norris) – Party of Dreamers
  • Time Attendant and Dolly Dolly (aka Paul Snowdon and David Yates) – ‘Subtle Bodies’

As with all their releases, these things sell fast, so stay frosty and don’t say we didn’t warn you!

Categories
Ambient Review Synth

Field Lines Cartographer – Formic Kingdom

Woodford Halse – Release: 12th December 2020

Mark Burford aka Field Lines Cartographers music has featured on our radio shows many times in the past. Formic Kingdom being his latest cassette outing, this time via Woodford Halse, complete with some rather excellent die-cut, multilayered artwork on the sleeve.

Delicate tones exist in the dense layers and warbling hiss envelopes each drone, most of which have that slightly foreboding minor-key quality, typical of the FLC sound.

When you read the insect-orientated concept, the cover art and track names start to fall into place, read on for the ‘Formic Kingdom’ official blurb! (pre-orders open 4th December)

Categories
Ambient Experimental Review

Various – The Quietened Dream Palace

A Year In The Country – Release: 17th Nov 2020

One of the UK’s most intriguing labels, A Year In The Country releases albums with both regularity and mystery. Conceptually the label appears to exist in an intersection between music, folklore and science fiction. With amazingly produced products that go beyond the music itself. However this isn’t style over substance, or an after attempt to attach more meaning to a piece of music, as the themes are intrinsically linked between both audio and visual elements.

The Quietened Dream Palace their latest offering and teh last of 2020 for the label. It focuses on the an exploration of closed down cinemas, including those which have been abandoned, become derelict, reopened as something new or demolished and there is little or no trace of any more.

In their words:

Categories
Experimental Review

Loula Yorke – Crowd Control Vol 2

Tigerforce Records – Release: 4/12/20

Having recently scooped up an Oram award, presented by PRS Foundation and The New BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Loula Yorke follows up on the improvised Crowd Control V0l.1 with a more considered studio selection of bustling drones, noise, algorithmic generation and granular processing.

Keep an eye on her bandcamp for details on ordering.

Categories
Electro House Review Techno

DJ Godfather – Electro Beats For Freaks

Databass – Release: 20/11/20

Ghettotech legend DJ Godfather has been making trax and spinning tunes for over 20 years. I first became aware of his music via his Databass imprint sometime around 2000, when I was buying Detroit and Chicago imports via the Vinyl Underground shop in the UK. Since then, I’ve caught a few of his quick-mixing DJ sets and more recent releases and can safely say, he is an artist who hasn’t strayed far from the original ideas being pushed back then. Fast and raw party trax, with an outspoken appreciation for the female form.

Now in 2020, Godfather’s first proper artist album ‘Electro Beats For Freaks’ is penned for released, and his biggest undertaking to date: “With nearly 2 hours of music, it’s a collection of 44 tracks that range from Ghettotech to Juke and Electro; Techhouse to Bmore. The tracks (only a handful of which have been previously released) transition into one another with a seamless flow, so they can either be heard individually or as a continuous playback.”