INWARDS — RAINDROPS

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Highlighting negative with glossy, unobtrusive columns of bass, Inwards aka Kristian Shelley throws handfuls of sparkling synth into the air — clean clusters of beeps, tracts of phasing fizz — for his latest track ‘Raindrops’. Throughout, amorphous vocal samples snap like elastic, burst with watery clarity, matching the track’s title.

Though lacking its techno thump, ‘Raindrops’ recalls the freestyling antics of the synth at work in the Chao Lobby theme from Sonic Adventure 2: Battle. Perhaps it’s that carefree reminiscence, or maybe it’s the sheer cartwheeling joy involved in Shelley’s soundscape, but ‘Raindrops’ is like a sonic expression of innocence.

The warm bass envelops you, the vocal samples and synth spin like toys, the percussion hopscotches along like a clapping game, then there’s that nostalgic 8-bit element. Shelley's track inches very close to being a small portal opened on an idealised, pixel art remix of your childhood home; yet at its core yawns a bristling void of detachment, an inane world-weariness.

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• 🔔 Feeling So Fun Reality EP, scheduled for release via Brighton-based label Small Pond on 7th October. You may pre-order it and listen to 'Raindrop' over on Bandcamp.

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HEIGHTS — SILLY

⌾ LISTEN TO HEIGHTS, SILLY ⌾

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Occupying its time of existence with plumes of bass that collapses in on itself with potential, and with a restless energy curled like a cosmic spring that provides the aesthetic casing for the track, 'Silly' by Brighton-based musicmaker HEIGHTS is a tale of willing one thing leading to another, of inching towards what you desire.

While the propulsive kick-snare pattern and misty tick of cymbals keeps impatient time, the voice of HEIGHTS herself skips over the lyrics, the vocal nonchalant, lilting and heady, turning fully acrobatic in the chorus, splitting sentences in graceful slices: "And I want you to take this / lip lock / No shock / I like this kind of vertigo / From time / to time / I see you when my eyes are closed / No low / no lie / Seen a little light now I want to see the full storm."

Washed with an icy haze of ambient synth throughout, summoning a cityscape at night, HEIGHTS builds a story on tantalising lyrics, weaving between cryptic self-enquiry and concrete, relatable imagery. The opening lines paint this interplay with particular skill — "Would you believe I’ve still not made it home? / I still have the city underneath my bones" — and later announcing "Summer inside my soul" before a harmony of realness erupts with the refraining "all I wanna feel is love".

Splicing this poetic deftness and effortless songwriting with a moody instrumental that feels as though a post-night out atmosphere has been bottled up and presented in sonic form, somehow, the other triumph of 'Silly' is how its title belies its brilliance.

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• 🔔 'Silly' is taken from HEIGHTS' debut self-released EP, also called HEIGHTS, which you can stream on SoundCloud.

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GLADYS KNIGHT – I HEARD IT THROUGH THE GRAPEVINE (EONE'S BASEMENT RE-WORK)

This is a remix. But it's a remix with a difference cause it's officially titled the 'Basement Re-Work' and, when you listen to it, you can really get where the basement part comes from. Cause this is all basement. This is all dusty and half-uncovered and dimly lit and unseen for years and subterranean. And it should be so, because the guy who made this – the Brighton-based Eone – usually makes undegroundy darkly cold/cool tracks but this one is my favourite so far.

With samples from the Gladys Knight version creeping in scratchy and distorted as if they've travelled all the way from 1967 to infiltrate your ears, it's a song that basically expounds a quintessential UK sound and that's an eerie, hard and almost dub-flavoured minimalism. Laden with a dusky soundscape of floating soft synths, it is a song of two halves with this wah-wah synth aching with chorused wobble as its liquid riff: a slo-house rhythm with dub clacks for snares that goes uptempo, double-time, for its ending.

It's thick with this almost stifling darkness, a deep quality that feels as if the sounds are viscously orbiting you, cushioning you, all along. The uptempo part feels fresh, there's a groovesome vibe to it, and with the sample chiming in amidst the boom of the beat there's a reliclike air to it, an authenticity, a stamp of the past on something that – with its style – could only be new. Tbh I don't think I've ever heard a Motown sample framed in a sound like this one, and for that, well, this is pioneering. Or it might be the case that my experience or knowledge doesn't extend as far as yours or the next person's, but whateverrr.

• Go listen to Eone's Brighton Representing Mixtape made specially for Y/N

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TRIM NOTICE NOW (EONE'S RAIDERS OF THE LOST DARK REFIX)

I came back and then I went away again then came back again and disappeared for like a week but here I am. Yes, I have proverbially returned. It has been a chilled time but all chills must come to an end – one cannot chill forever. And although I posted a new track on New Year's Day ('Everything Happens To You' by miii) it was kind of a stand-alone thing. So now here's something to properly start 2014. It's something dark and stormy and it's from the Brighton producer himself, Eone.

Whilst it's not an original, it shows an interesting side to this man's sound. When I first stumbled across his sounds, I was under the impression that he made a dark brand of techno and only that, but after I listened to his guest mix for YES/NO it was clear that his tastes and influences ran wider and deeper than I'd imagined – grime and hip hop played a large part in his musical repertoire. And it's displayed most of all in this newest track, something old rediscovered and uploaded – as such, it's new. A refix of 'Notice Now' by rapper Trim, previously part of super grime collective Roll Deep, Eone injects the track – previously an electronically charged number with dubstep flavours – with a new bass-laden ethnic ornamentation.

Trim's swarthy, plosive vocals are extracted from the original's zeitgeistical dubstep surroundings and placed in a deep creeping basement of shadowy reverb, where an atonal, grimey bassline leads into bristling swathes of percussion – shakers, drums, tinny hits, a waterfall of sound that gives this essentially urban medium of art a faraway exotic twist, something from another dimension almost. And it reminds me a little bit of the music for Hazy Maze Cave from Super Mario 64 – man I'm just listening to it now and it's almost a perfect match. The name is really nice too: 'Raiders of the Lost Dark'.

Anyway, it shows another side to Eone and one that I hope he'll revisit soon, cause I know this is an old song. Perhaps these flavours will be revitalised, and perhaps there'll be more remixes/fixes like this, too. Bye-bye!

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YES/NO GUEST MIX 004 :: EONE'S BRIGHTON REPRESENTING MIXTAPE

Why hello! Yes, it's another guest mix. How happy I am! How happy are we all! Rejoicing resounding. Don't you think? Well, every guest mix is – despite perhaps being filled with songs that you may have heard before – a piece of new music, essentially. It's like shuffling a deck of cards: there are infinite, or almost infinite, combinations, as well as different personal touches that each artist adds to a mix. Everything is always different.

This latest one, the fourth that has been lovingly crafted for YES/NO, comes from Brighton producer and DJ, Eone. I stumbled across his dark and subtle breed of techno-glinting house around this time last year, namely in the form of his atmospheric track 'Monochromatic World', subsequently writing about a song from his EP Dispersion called 'Airport Lounge' – my favourite from the release.

First inspired to create music by stealing his brother's Roni Size and Goldie records, Eone – DJ/producer/music teacher and fair-weather skateboarder, Simon Mitchell – went on to be awestruck by his first trip to Fabric, explaining: "[I] just fell in love with the scene. I'd been DJing for a few years and I always knew I'd want to make tracks so when another good friend of mine, Mark Allen (Karm:A Brighton's best guitarist!) installed a copy of Reason on my old PC, I was hooked." And it was as simple as that.

In this mix, he aims to conjure the sights and sounds of his hometown by using various Brighton-related tracks. From the illuminating and tongue-in-cheek diatribe on its somewhat seedy nightlife from Oxfordshire rapper Dr Syntax to the fresh-sounding house and rich electronica of fellow Brighton-dwellers Lorca and Eagles For Hands, the mix moves from UK hip hop through to garage-tinged house at the end, showing a varied scene down in this south coast city. "Brighton has a lot of talent and always has done," Eone told me. "The scene down here is very positive and community-structured and that shows." He also contributes to this scene, along with a group of friends, via the BN1 podcast – a show that aims to showcase and support musical talent in Sussex.

But enough chat! Enjoy the mix! Thank you Mr Eone!

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01. Cloud 9 - Hangover Cure
02. Frankie Stew & Harvey Gunn - Solid Air Ft. Ceezlin
03. Dr Syntax - Seaside Postcard
04. Written In Waters - Ligeia (MitchWadeCole Bootleg)
05. Eone - Untitled
06. Eagles For Hands - Peaches
07. Murder He Wrote - One Night
08. Lorca - Moments
09. Joonipah - Yellow & Red
10. Tweet - Opps (Jacques Lorenz Remix)

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PLATY∏ FOR REAL

Wow so it's been a while since I talked about this man. I wrote about him around the end of last year. That's like, almost a whole year ago now. Imagine that. You don't actually have to imagine it cause it's happening RIGHT NOW. That's what's going on. Anyway, I'm very happy that Playπ (that's Platypi for those who don't know their π's from their φ's) has made some new music. Last time I wrote about this Brighton-based hip hop producer it was regarding his glitchy-as-it-is-swaggery song 'Lassitude'. A very nice song indeed.

This time around however, Platyπ (aka real-named person Alistair Hill) has uploaded something very different onto his SoundCloud page. Although the mainstay of his general repertoire - that is, the syncopated offbeats of hip hop - is still present, there seem to be a lot more elements at play here, something that gives the song a mature, accomplished feel. Perhaps it's just his use of samples that do it here. Everyone knows I love a well-placed sample or two, but that's beside the point. The point is that it sounds good and I like it a lot.

Utilising a sample that sounds like it could be from some cheesy 80s commercial - glittering pop bells and lush palm-tree evoking sounds, basically - the song leads into a sparse boom-bap-esque hip hop beat with thudding kicks and reverbing snare. Chopping and looping the sample creates the distinct feel of melodic white noise at some points, particularly for the part where the beat drops to make way for some lovely electric piano chord progressions that make their soft presence known for the rest of the song.

A softly distorted bass has been added, something that exudes a certain amount of funk, locking in with the kicks of the beat for maximum rhythmic effect. Speaking of effect, there's a great bit in the song (at 0:58 I think) where everything just cuts out for a beat, leaving a breathless space of nothing that allows the next beat to be pretty punch without adding in any build-up tricks. There are lots of different parts to this song - quite something considering it's only 2 minutes long. This brand of music could be easily aligned with vaporwave, perhaps just for its particular choice of sample use, but for me all it does is mark a change in sound for Platyπ; and not just any old change, but a seemingly natural change - something that, for any artist really, is a good thing.

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EONE AIRPORT LOUNGE

Here's a guy who I haven't heard very much from at all until his record label sent me an email detailing the release of his new EP. This is Eone, the Brighton (UK) producer whom I first knew as "Evil1" when I wrote about his mean-yet-ambient track 'Monochromatic World' at the end of last year - it's actually one that features on his new EP, Dispersion, released at the end of September on Brighton label Numerology Records. On the whole, it's a dark journey characterised by experimental ambience and techno sensibilities - with soft synths, he mixes brutal kicks and brooding bass that rumbles your bones.

I've today decided to write about my favourite track from the EP, 'Airport Lounge'. It is simply bustling with sounds, from intergalactic fizzing ticks and dripping taps, to whirring hard-drives and masses of background noise - papers being shuffled, a murmur of voices, the general white noise of the air. In fact, it sounds as if he quite possibly did sample an actual airport lounge to capture those ambient sounds. Have a listen to this wonderful melting pot.

Alongside those flitting noises, soft stellar synths sweep across the board with a cold and glossy sense of futurism. A muffled kick pattern comes in alongside the urgent timekeeping fizz of half-open hi-hats; this gives the song an understated rhythm without exploding into a full-blown beat that would perhaps take away its actual feeling of an airport lounge - the lassitude of waiting endlessly without consequence. Unintelligble altered vocal samples wind their way through the song, both high-register and low-register, forgetting the original vocal sound, giving it a decidedly urban feel, something hard-edged and bristling, almost like the not-so-lighthearted jargon of airport and airline staff, it rushing into your ears without it making much sense.

It's a song that seems to be over almost instantly, but at the same time it's one that climbs into your mind and stays there for a while. Those futuristic sounds seem to melt into your consciousness, creating and evoking the feeling of cold detachment in our modern world. If you liked this, you can find more intense variations on this vibe on the Dispersion EP - please direct yourself to listen to most of it on Numerology Records SoundCloud.

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ALMIGHTY PLANETS WILDFIRE [SBTRKT COVER + FREE DOWNLOAD]

I talked about covers recently and said something to the extent of they can be good or bad. The good ones tend to be clever in their approach, the band ones - not so. This cover of SBTRKT's 'Wildfire' from Brighton-based band Almighty Planets is quite easily in the former category. It doesn't just fall into this category, it has firmly placed itself there with confident steps, that's for sure.

The main change is that there is a dub rhythm, even style, in place now and it suits the song wonderfully. The drums are explosive and echoing, adding darting dub fills in between its stamping beat. The horn section really does it for me, and adds even more of that laid back jazzy dub midnight on a bustling veranda feel to the song - as does the bass, subby and grooving with attitude, arranged perfectly for the cover, giving it such a different vibe it's unreal.

Saxophone solo? Yeah, it's there and it's like a luxurious drive down a street lit with neon signs to a beach hotel. Something like that. In other words, it makes ye feel good dunnit - sounds damn good too. The vocals are rich and layered, a veritable cake of voice that provides a more chilled vibe to this part than was in the original with vocals from Little Dragon, which almost overpowered it - these vocals mesh with everything else and cooperate to bring you the best in songs-that-work-really-well. Whet your appetite enough? Then listen up.

Tasty tasty stuff. And what's more you can down-bloody-load it, what a lovely bonus! This'll be on the summer playlist fo sho. As for the band, by the sounds of things they should be on the up-and-up-and-up in no time.

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PLATY∏ (PLATYPI) LASSITUDE

May look like Russian, but that right there is actually Platyπ or Platypi - plural of Platypus, using the fun pi (π) symbol to stand in for that plural inflection. In any case, what we have today is some lovely, ear friendly music from this guy called Platyπ (real name Alistair Hill, a Brighton, UK native) - the kind of music that's wonderfully suited to a gentle start on a Friday morning, where anything more intense or heavier could quite easily send you crashing down into some kind of coma (a worse coma than you may already be experiencing), whereas this song 'Lassitude' performs in quite the opposite way: it snuggles down with that comatose feeling and caresses that zombified mind of yours. Without doubt, this is hypothetical; of course if you aren't already comatose, it's an entirely relaxing tune.

With its soul sturdily rooted in the flighty church of glitch, the school of bleep, it makes measured and controlled use of clipped samples, halfway houses of electronic surges that trip their way through all 2 minutes and 22 seconds of this song. A truncated vocal sample hops teasingly in and out of earshot whilst the beat etches its fluttering hip hop pattern throughout. A veritable joy - and this song, apparently, was the first to come from Platyπ's university degree and with that in mind it's a fine start to a hopefully long and illustrious future back-catalogue.

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EONE MONOCHROMATIC WORLD [FREE DOWNLOAD]

Really loving the ultimate chill of this song. It's called 'Monochromatic World' and comes from Evil1, a recent signing to a Passive Front Records. Surprised that stuff like this isn't more well known sometimes, because not only is it good, it's also interesting - the creation of ambience with intensity is something that you don't get often, and something that Evil1 seems to be very good at.

The sound reminds me of a balloon being alternately inflated and deflated, the synths railing over the top of everything in particular grow and expand to almost infinite proportions, easing back and almost disappearing before growing once again. Overall, the sound is one of a lounge song - with teeth.

Before you know it you're blown away with this bulldozer bass that underpins the whole sound perfectly and moves in ways you don't expect it. The percussion is spot on, too, providing a lightly tribal feel in certain parts. I want the beat to be louder, for those snare claps to actually reach out of my headphones and slap me in the face - but it's still a well patterned beat. The vocal sample is nicely used as well, imbuing the song at its last parts with the spirit that truly would make up a monochromatic world.

Ambient, loud, quiet, dynamic. Looking forward to hear the progression of this artist. Oh, and if you like it you can download it for free. Isn't that lovely?

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