🐣 CABU — TRY FEAT. LILI N

The fluid sound of this track gives such a feeling of weightlessness, of floating on the gently swaying surface of the sea, or some turquoise pool under some powder blue sky and the sun tzzzang white light in it. Those keys, so luscious, start proceedings, liquid in their glossy clocking tones - or are they like boiled sweets, or are they like shellac? But it’s the kicks, those booming muffled robust thuds that reverberate deep in your ribcage, like pebble drops on a still pond surface and the ripples from that: the water droplet, evolved. The dust physicality of the snare, like palm fronds clacking together, leaves sheafing and scratching each other, as well as those gorgeous organic hi-hats, splendid in their minutely imperfect timing, tick tick like the living ambience of tropical shorelines and lakesides.

Born of the brain belonging to Australian beatmaker Cabu, ‘Try’ bumps along, a chill anthem of fluidity and glittering delicacy, joined by the voice of Rome-based singer LILI N, whose crisp tone - augmented by satisfying subtle layers of low pitch-shifts - seems to crackle amongst the clouded softness of the song. That tender heart of ‘Try’ is founded on fleshy sub-bass that engines along, an echo of the vocal melody and a whole gloop of sound that reflects the chill bubbly atmosphere below the surface of water as much as the trickling greenery above the glassy surface - the opposite, practically, to the higher pitched musicbox-esque plucked string sounds that zip tumbling in the hook.

It's very simple: just a few elements make up this incredibly beautiful track. Together they merge into a veil of soothing sound that has this indomitable relaxing atmosphere, helped by the satin synth chords that follow the bass. Yet it's not all about being this straight-up "chill" track; the hook melody isn't exactly all brimming with upbeatness - in fact, in its descending melody, and crossed with the root bass, it feels despondent and, especially in the last two bars of that synth refrain, somewhat conflicted, somewhere between cheery and despairing.

Ah~~ The rhythm of it, the laid-back swing, the crooning clarity of the vocals, the luscious opulence of the gemstone keys that light up this track, how it is all like a paradisical garden: the dual worlds of outer beauty and inner intensity.

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• 🔔 This wonderful piece of music is taken from Cabu's Twenty Three EP, which was released earlier this month courtesy of YouTube playlisters turned label, Majestic Casual. You may stream and purchase it via your favourite service here.

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☟ Cabu Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 THE EARFLOWER EXPERIMENT — PASS(H)ERBY

Something steeped in humidity here actually turns out to be the perfect soundtrack to watching the snow fall (the UK is currently wrapped in a frosty Siberian weather front). The blissful soft snowflake sounds of the hank drum employed in this track by Indian artist Astaaq Ahmed aka The Earflower Experiment – tuned in the cheerful key of C, he tells us via email – ping and pong with a soothing pace and texture. ‘Pass(h)erby’ is like a panacea, a gorgeous weave of textures, the cradle of bristling rich percussion that arrives, the warm waves of synth that waft in resolutely, the sparkling deep-breath lead synths.

“While conceptualising this song, I was mostly concerned with trying to capture the essence of a constantly moving, fast-paced world,” says Astaaq. “There are things happening in our lives on a regular basis, but our stories, in the larger scheme of things, don’t have any impact on anyone but us. The world is blissfully ignorant of your happiness, anger, pains and sorrows, and it just keeps spinning.” And this track has that motion, the gently unrelenting beat that fades into a lullaby on a patchwork of chirruping night insects: the heartbeat of your panic and pain as ignored by the natural world. And how fine that is, how ok the world is even after tragedy, how this track comforts you.

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• 🔔 This comes from The Earflower Experiment's An Anecdote EP, which Astaaq tells us "tries to convey the life cycle of a rather unfortunate relationship."

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🐣 TONIO GEUGELIN AND MOGLII — SCHILLERIZE

The smoothness, the channels of caramel that flow wonderful in this track, the untouched pristine minimalism of it, all of this, the popping percussion tumbling along like light-up spheres gently donning into one another. There is just such a tract of these delicious percussive noises going on here, such a catalogue of textures, a gentle curve of creation, cuteness in motion. German musicmaker Moglii and producer-violinist-singer Tonio Geugelin's organic wonderland of a track is powerful in its pastel hues, a vision of the potential intricacy in dance music, in electronic pop music, beyond formulaic future bass and beyond the esotericism of IDM, into a world of warmth and easy intrigue.

Toy instrumentation might not be a true part of the duo's brand new track 'Schillerize' – referring to the process of creating an artificial iridescent sheen in crystals – but there is certainly an element of it present; wind-up toy sounds creak and trickle in the background, ping-pong bloops ding and pop, the sort of sounds you might hear from a VTech electronic learning product, or maybe more like a retro-leaning drum machine tom; percussion like pearl necklaces or bags of marbles jostle and ticker-ticker, big handclaps count out the hidden footwork energy at the heart of the rhythm, this natural world, this flora of beat ornamentation.

Producer Moglii speaks about the track: "It lives through the combination of the organic electronic beat with the acoustic beauty of a violin and vocalchops to get an unique soundscape," he tells us. "Therefore violinist and singer Tonio Geugelin was the perfect partner for this track."

Vocodered vocals, sometimes layered lightly with faint pitch-shiftings of itself, sing out in syncopation, eschewing the typical synth chord or piano syncopation of electronic music, with the synth instead snaking throughout, with not a build-up or a drop in sight, gradually rippling harder and heavier towards the end, the whole track feeling like a distortion of the glassy crystalline surface of a turquoise brilliant body of water.

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• 🔔
• 🔔 'Schillerize' is out today on BonFire Records.
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☟ Tonio Geugelin Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 GEO — FOR YOU

There it is, that liquid sound, that trickling water, the jagged trajectory of a countryside rill becolumned with rocks and pebbles and clear as glass, all of it glistening atop and refracted below, glinting glinting, overhanging plants, the gnarl of ancient trees, flowers, heather, stone and water, angular and fluid. And it's all created with percussion, plumes of percussive sound that jingles and rat-tat-tats metallic and clinking, all light and lo-fi, a constant trundle, close to haunting with the vintage crackle infused in this textured tapestry. Romantically titled 'For You' this wildly ornamental piece of sound bedecked in silver and gold and iridescent gems was created by LA-based producer GEO, sultry and splendrous, smooth and shivering.

The clanking evolves into more woody sounds, clopping clonking robust hollow tick-tockings lashed together with sharp sheafing hi-hats, blessings of percussion that make the skin quiver, hairs tightening in their follicles on the nape of your neck. As if that wasn't enough, bass with a beautiful thick rounded tone scoops out the underlayers of the track and fills it with slow bubbles of groove for a slow-jam feel, soon joined by warm piano chords that lock in with the bassline, play with organic power the hot sighs of a beating heart. Vocals lifted from somewhere paint in silken soothing brushstrokes crooning romance. Little squelchy bleeps act all playful with soft melodies and synth peals soar into the sky. Streaming and flowing riverine and pastoral, here is that sonnet of sound, that melodious pouring forth of emotions, something beautiful carved for a beloved someone.

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• 🔔 You can find GEO's stunning 'For You' on Hype Machine and give it some love if you like.

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☟ GEO Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 CHLOE X HALLE — USED TO LOVE (MOZADO REMIX)

Half sleekly clinical space-age white with reflective smooth screens, half organic heartfelt body and muscle and historical small streets and cafes, this track is a clear split, a love-letter to real humanistic flavours told with synthetic electronics, the hip shuffle of salsa bossa nova patterns exude through the syncopated piano that pulses cosmopolitan below the wonderful velvet vocals that skim warm richly throughout. These are the voices of sister duo Chloe x Halle, this track being a remix of their song 'Used to Love', a gorgeous a cappella composition filled with sultry lilting lines thick with harmony, solo parts powerfully cutting through and soaring gutsy above these choral comforters, impatient spoken-word "ok…ok…" and handclaps perforating the languor with potential energy.

But musicmaker and serial remixer Mozado, clearly seeing the promise of these incredibly endearing vocals, as well as the non-instrumental setting, turned this from an album intro light and airy as that time between asleep and awake, falling into slumber in the warmth of the sun, takes this feeling and through rhythmic permutations of Latin sashay and ticking trap brings out the bubbling energy of its heart, the powerful vocals now washing through the thudding beats that Mozado punctuates with luscious percussion chiming pots-and-pans tinkering and the warmth of the plasma synth matching the richly layered vocals, the hefty sub-bass, the dynamic of it all, this instrumental sliding along like a cloud-filled dream as much as it bumps and whips with pumping blood panache, this remix a vital reaction to the raw honest beauty of the original.

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• 🔔 Mozado's remix can be downloaded for free via this little link here.
• 🔔 'Used to Love' is taken from Chloe x Halle's debut self-released mixtape, The Two of Us. You can listen to this collection of goodies on YouTube. In addition it can be streamed or purchased variously via this link.

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☟ Chloe x Halle Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 MOSSY — GLASS

This track exudes wandering feeling, something achieved by the first wide chords that fade into the tract of percussion already at work, and kept up by the multiple switches that happen throughout the track's duration, this sonic shape of meandering through somewhere, the kind of soundscape that fits weaving in and out of trudging commuters, or watching the land change blurring through the window on a road trip, a sense of discovery summoned by mossy, ever-present amidst the uncountable percussive clinkings and the space-leaning synths that shine and gleam and add a steamy water vapour rainforest mist to the proceedings, this natural feel conjured by these endless tracts of percussion luscious and wonderful, ornaments for 'glass'.

Snaking hi-hats rattle and handclaps slap-slap-slap-slap and a triangle tings and rainstick streamings and smart snapping snares and synthetic woodblocks clip-clip-click and far-off textural deliciousness cash registers a book flying through the air hitting a tree trunk with a stick—and then the marimba glockenspiel is chiming mysterious heavenly percussive glinting amidst the thicketing forest of sound. Modulating synth beams glowering below, a deep bubbling, the untameable core of https://soundcloud.com/julianborrego, whipping past leaves and crunching soil as you walk further into it, vocal samples yelping out of the neardistance hopeful representation of familiarity within the bristling trees and what they hide yet how strange they sound; the final vocal sung "I've been thinking about feeling something… every time I try, I feel nothing…" The simple longing for a connection whilst encased in chaos, looking from the outside into something better, how to break the barrier.

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• 🔔 'glass' is the third single to be taken from mossy's upcoming debut EP. More will follow so keep an eye out.
• 🔔 You can download 'glass' from Toneden if you like.

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☟ mossy Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 CYANURA — SPLASH

There is a wholesome realness in this track that makes it difficult to not bring your other senses along for the ride: skin tingles and warms, mouth and tongue seems to anticipate flavours and textures of tasty food, visions of a natural world elsewhere swirl like mists into your mind. Combining the sounds of outside, the sounds of nature with its luscious crunches and the inviting glory of water sloshing and soothing, combining these with the sounds of indoors, the ultimate indside sounds in the form of synths that bleep simple and videogame-esque or resonate rounded and glassy with artificial digital perfection, Vancouver musicmaker cyanura transports us to wherever we most associate these sounds, a lake shore, the ocean, a boat, a riverside, a tropical island—where there's water, there 'splash' is.

With a big emphasis on foley – that is, creating sound effects or in this case instruments by effectively sampling real life sounds – cyanura serves up a bustling collage of percussion that gives this song its rich textural dimensions, that all-senses effect where the clean clicks and clops tapping and popping in the track feel like different hard sweets: it is quite literally delicious. We have the crunch of footsteps, the dry shuffle of sheafing through pages of a book, reverbing finger clicks, distant hi-hats, tiny rolling snares—a percussive playground. It almost overshadows the beautiful plaintive melodies of the track, a modern day pastoral, the childlike nature of it summoning a deep sense of fun and nostalgia associated with fun and the places where it can be had. Idyllic is the word.

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• 🔔 This beautiful track is cyanura's first to be uploaded so keep an eye on their SoundCloud.

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☟ cyanura Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 J TROPIC — THINKING OF U

The contemporary swing of syncopation pervades this track, with its DK Jungle Parkway delicious marimba chords clunking and other percussive xylophonic chiming, a tide of cut jewels and raw gemstones that tumble and shine in the summer sunlight feel of this track, the jiggling impatient two-step speed of it, and all that cut-glass beauty exquisite as they are cute with all their tiny sounds, like a wind-up toy, like a music box, the glossy sultry sumptuousness of it. Throw a handful from a pack of Fox's Glacier Fruits up into the sky and watch the sun glint in each one and catch them in your mouth and taste the flavour, feel the satisfying gem quality—the sounds of 'Thinking Of U' are much like this.

Then there is the crunch and click of percussion, the clack of the snare, the whistle-toggle rapid tambourine ticka-ticka-ticka-ticka fast but subtle in the glorious chorus where the glomping clonks of marimba speed up and ring out more frequently, the ever-present tickling shifting sands of a rainstick or similar lending yet more texture to this chock-a-bloc tract of sound, J Tropic making it so that it is simultaneously minimalistic and well ornamented, a delicate blissful balance from the London-based musicmaker. This is not even mentioning the vocals, which play their part lilting and crooning in the verse and deftly, energetically spinning the hook, "I'm always thinking of you"—how it exudes summer, freshness, life, positivity, heat, passion, chill, all at the same time, the tilt of our star in the blue sky, the rustle of green leaves, the warmth on your skin, the flow tide of romance.

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• 🔔 You can variously buy and stream J Tropic's lovely track via this link.

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☟ J Tropic Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 MOOKHI — LACUNAE

We slide down this archaic manuscript of sound with the warm vintage crackle and the plink-plink-plink that speeds up into a dusty pulsar and becomes a constant, we slide and reach the end where we fly off a ramp and hurtle with a rushing whoosh into a vacancyof sky that's littered with a luscious collage of sounds looming and lilting. This is 'Lacunae' by Sydney producer Mookhi, a dose of sound that's intricate and intense, a tapestry of gleaming sounds from pealing violins and rivers of soft synth and flighty chimes, to harp sounds and robust piano, all in a plume of textured smoke, nebulous and narcotic swirling and diving and curling and writhing through a slalom of percussion that thumps with heartbeat bass and shines with sharp hi-hat sheafs and scathing abrasive virtuoso snares.

The dynamics of 'Lacunae' lie in its expert transitions: the beginning, the ramp and take-off, the initial swaying rhythm pockmarked with the reeling snare rolls and wide wheeling atmosphere with those three chords blasting out mistily, an expansive feeling; and then the mid-section where sampled voices and crunching outdoors found sounds jostle like snippets of memory; and then the sounds multiply and grow richer and resonate with wild gentleness; and it ends with those plink-plinking parts, just as it started. By this rise in intensity as it progresses, it's noticeable that crucially this track is marked by an urgency to go forward, with that persistent sample continuous from the beginning, with the impatient snare rolls, the increase in the thicketing sounds, yet it is veiled by a fog of the past – the quality of some of the sounds, the archaic record player crackle, the nostalgic warmth of it – so that the future though seemingly close at hand is out of reach.

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• 🔔 Earlier this year Mookhi aka Olympia Henshaw released a quite well received project in the form of her Lost & Found EP. You can listen to that over on her SoundCloud.
• 🔔 'Lacunae' is the plural of lacuna which means like a gap or unfilled space. It comes from Latin where it means hole or pit and is actually the diminutive form of lacus—that's lake.

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☟ Mookhi Internet Presence ☟
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🐣 XANDER — OURGARDEN

One of our favourite things is when an instrumental track has descriptive title and the track itself is highly evocative of that title. So, like a track mentioning 'aquatic' in its title sounding like a good underwater theme. Now here we are talking about themes like we're talking about videogames – because that music specifically has to fit the surroundings, has to immerse you in the game. And while we're on the subject, the first thing highschooler xander's luscious track 'ourgarden' called to mind is the DK's Jungle Parkway theme from Mario Kart 64, with all the polyrhythmic marimba and ambient tropical life bristling in the background.

The tapestry of sound at work in xander's track, the skittering percussion and synth glitchings, illustrates the constant bustling life of a jungle, that's for sure. But for the track to be called 'ourgarden' – alluding to a relationship – and the track itself to be so wild and jostling in its sound, suggests something not as peachy or ordered as a literal garden but something darker, uncontrollable, unknowable. And then with the faint turmoil of the trappish beat with its slow pulse and thudding kicks and muted dramatic cymbal crashes, adds extra inner anguish to the track and its myriad organic adornments. That longing, begging vocal whispering "I love you so much..." during a break in the beats, nearly inaudible, almost menacing. The beauty of this track is as exquisitely deceptive as its title: the garden is not a garden—something looms in the lush undergrowth.

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• 🔔 More lovely music from xander can be downloaded from his Bandcamp.

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☟ xander Internet Presence ☟
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