Since the beginning of this magazine that we have been receiving great electronic tracks. For some reason, we didn’t post about those submissions because we felt they should be integrated into a specific mood. We are now building that mood with a monthly post focusing on the best of indietronica. This is Electromental – part 7.
Good Lee – Panda Journey
“I wanted to make something that is fun, uplifting, dreamy but also invites you to move and to let this chilled animal friend take you on a trip that hopefully might bring you some joy and a smile during these times. It feels like the perfect time to get it out.”
If we wanted to start on a high note, we couldn’t do better than this. Good Lee’s latest release (two years after the great Fluffy Clouds) it’s the incredible Panda Journey. If you like how that reads, you should push play right now. This is a track that will do to you exactly what its maker intended to. Always growing, really up-lifting, a room filler, and of course a dancing winner. A track to bring all of you joy in these moments for sure!
Aonian – Ascent
If a kick like that puts us high up in our emotions, at times we also need something lighter. Aonian’s latest track, Ascent, is a wavy dream that makes us levitate but on the inside. The track is ever-growing and fuses electronics with melodic elements from the Mediterranean. It provides us with a beautiful experience for calming everything down and focusing on what’s matter. The track has references from folk, but the Greek-based roots of the maker are clearly imprinted in the track. That makes this stand out in terms of novelty in electronic music these days.
Absorver – Soils I
Ready for one other different flow that will make you levitate? Absorver (a suggestive name that works like charm with the musical sonority of the project) makes electronic tracks that implement tribal elements in super melodic ways. Reminding us a bit of Jamie XX’s first album, Soils I is as catchy-trippy as any electronic music can dream to be. We imagine ourselves listening to this time and time again, in a consecutive manner, and rarely get tired of it. There is nothing to get tired of. It’s almost like this track can make us untiring. And that’s unbelievable. If you dig it like we do you should check the full EP voyage he prepared in Absorvations.
Bloom’s Taxonomy – Imaginary Angles
Bloom’s Taxonomy is the name of the first solo project of William Fraser. London-based but avoiding stereotypes in terms of electronic sonority, his tracks sound airy, Tron-like, but also surprising and constantly evolving. When we hear a song like Imaginary Angles (one of the tracks that are part of the recently released album Foley Age) we feel there are some elements we feel familiar with, but can’t explain why not totally. There is a sense of alienness in the sonority. But there is also comfort, and all that founds energy in the constant evolution of the track. With references like Aphex Twin, Brian Eno, and Four Tet, his sonority lies somewhere in between. In a space where there are seamlessly no boundaries and no fixed term. But there is a lot of wonders, and we like to get lost in it.
Cloud Opacity – Bring To Front
Imagine if music was made by designers. Open a graphic program, draw your thing. Put layers on top of layers on top of layers. Then send some to the back and bring others to the front. This what this track is about. Cloud Opacity put together a bunch of layers. And they let us experience every single one of them, then hide them so we get caught by surprise.
Bring To Front is as unexpected as it sounds. In it, we can never get used to one sonority or moment. The track changes bit by bit and forces us to follow it. And this journey seems to have no end since the producer just released a new track called With You just in time for Valentine’s Day. A more melodic song but simplicity is just an appearance for such layered and complex composition, once again. The Vancouver-based artist shows no roots, in a good sense of it, while they travel from genre to genre and let their music go with the flow. Nailed it.
Fiin – A Better Way
This is not a regular DJ. Fiin is a Miami-based who became the youngest resident DJ of Heart Nightclub. Since then, he has impromptu b2b with the likes of Paco Osuna or Marco Faraone. Presenting his newest track A Better Way, the DJ and producer intend to take us to his world and a journey during his favorite day of the week, as he says, “[This is] a very simple track, but every sound is where it needs to be. For me, it’s the perfect Sunday afternoon track. My favorite day of the week.” And in our opinion, he nailed it. Fiin created a solid Sunday afternoon composition; It relaxes our mind and soul and at the same time it charges batteries for the new week. The Arabic vocals sound just like mantras or some prayer that we use to clean our minds. Everything becomes blank. And then Fiin leads us to the Better Way to face the world ahead.
Gilligan Moss – Slow Down
Gilligan Moss is a Chicago duo that has been working on their self-titled debut album, set to be released April 9th. Slow Down is the latest advance from the pair (and 4th peak into the forthcoming album), and it is chillaxed downtown over there. There is a sweet and familiar repetition with the lyrics, beats, and overall soundscape. The upbeat energy and the cleverly included dog-barking take us back to sunny days and happy times. Regarding Slow Down, Gilligan Moss said that “it’s driving 5 mph with the windows down, enjoying the crumbled Oreo’s at the bottom of a milkshake“. Speaking of good stuff and Oreo’s crumbs, check out the incredible video that accompanies this powerhouse of good vibes:
Koresma feat. matt may – That Vibe
Some time ago we discovered Koresma. At that time we describe Ryan Lindberg’s musical project saying “Sometimes a song sings out loud without ever needing a voice“. Today, once again, we confirm that. That Vibe, his newest collaboration with Matt May, is a beautiful example of how we can feel the sea through music, without ever hearing the sound of it throughout the track, or without having to be staring at the waves. The guitar blues are perfectly aligned with the electronic synth-based flow. And the track that takes inspiration from genres like blues and RnB, showcases an electronic feel that above everything, sounds like the sound of nature on those electrifying days where everything sounds, seems and smells perfect.
Lake Suburbia – Leap
Some tracks just hit us differently, Leap is one of those tracks. Being the first release ever by Lake Suburbia, the alter ego of Sander Mangelschots, a multi-instrumentalist from Ghent, Belgium, this is a track that combines house beats and futuristic melodies to create dynamic layers and urban landscapes as it builds up. The song echoes in our heads as it was empty for a while. And that’s eventually Lake Suburbia’s proposal: to empty our minds and let it in. Until it’s in our skin and when we feel the beat in our toes, we dance. Leap is a proposal. are you willing to leap onto the emptiness, or to the unknown, then do your moves on the dancefloor?
Pansy Alert – Larry Fisherman
Larry Fisherman may be considered a sad song. The track was written as a form of reaction to Mac Miller’s death and takes on the feeling of emptiness that invades us when we lose a reference or a guiding light. Pansy Alert, who was highly influenced by the singer throughout his high school and childish times, carved a sonority that sounds both deep and inspiring, but also sad and raw.
With the drums highly dominating the song’s flow, and with almost 6 minutes, it sounds like a voyage into the inner parts of our souls. It’s a song that demands from us, from our spiritual part, from our feelings. A song that gracefully and darkly dominates us into feeling its consuming pain. But just like life, where there is a lot of beauty in sadness, this is a masterpiece of electronic music that will also make you feel beautiful things. Above all, will make you feel love and admiration. And the sense of loss for something very dear. And it does it in a way that when we get to the end we are neither sad, or mourning, or hurt. We are just inspired and at peace.
Saint State – Clouds
Clouds is the first track from the Portuguese-based electronic inspired project entitled Saint State. Filled with a genuine chill hop vibe, with dark elements that sound groovy, and a deep bass vibe that travels the listener throughout the track, this is a slow-burning track but also a track that grows gracefully, with the guitar vibes being the proper highlight. Composed and played by what can be described as a one-man-act, Clouds sound like the ideal track to embrace the mood of a dark cloudy day with an edge that can both build you up and give you the feeling that dark days are the new cool thing.
SNAK – Wandering
“Wandering” what to hear next? Let yourself go with SNAK voyage because that’s what he offers in his electronic-infused tracks that draw from experimental music.
Wandering is a track that uses and abuses from an element that I (José) am typically not a super fan of: echoed and modified vocals. But in this case, it actually feels perfect for the track. Every time I listen to the track I feel like I’ve been transported to an alternative TRON-based world, and that feels better than I would ever expect. And actually makes sense when feeling what the song represents. The track is inspired by social constructs of society and the general understanding of the human psyche and how the expressiveness of the human mind is actually most of the time in contrast to the norms and ideologies considered acceptable by society. Using synthesizers, drum machines, and acoustic instruments, Wandering is the soundtrack to an alternate reality where we can express ourselves fully.