Showing posts with label stratford ct. Show all posts
Showing posts with label stratford ct. Show all posts

Sunday, 2 November 2014

VENTUREX – TALK TO ME

How does VentureX keep making such lovely music? Last I heard from him was his very funky and very danceable track, 'Do You Remember' – it's been a while since then (also, and unfortunately, as usual) but I've just been magnetised to his brand new track 'Talk To Me'. It was the bass that got me at first.

The bass! The bass is fat and a little fuzzy. Sound is made of vibrations. Sound rather is vibrations. But it's not that often you actually physically feel those vibrations in your ear, in your brain, in your corneas – the world exists in a puzzle of slightly shuddering shapes.

These robust bassplosions are submerged beneath a shuffling beat whose hi-hat ticks impatiently, or lashes out into the open with cutting sharpness. An original track, dissected for inspection and chopped expertly finds itself strewn across VentureX's track; guitar appears in golden truncated chords, or else it peeks in with glints of funk. A vocal sample adds its warm soul to the mix, washed with clarity; the track ends with a cascade of chiming cosmic rainstick and the treble is gently removed, leaving you with that ever-satisfying vacuum that is only achingly good bass rumblings.

  • This comes as the second in very, very, very cool label / collective Stratford CT.'s Secret Selection, a series of surprise singles.
  • They also released a VentureX album which is one of my actual favourite releases of this year ever. It's called Together and it's genuinely and flawlessly superb. Listen to it here.



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Monday, 3 March 2014

SOSLYLOVE – AGELESS

A good compilation is sometimes all you need to open up a previously unexplored section of the music world; Various Artists are my favourite kind of artist. These compilations are like portals to an incredible 'elsewhere' – like opening a Pandora's Box, except with less of the world's evils and more of the world's good music. And besides, if Pokémon has proven anything, it's that we love collectibles – the mystique of Various Artists compilations hits us like the heady whiff of Nintendo's motley crew of monsters.

That's not to reduce the ever-surprising V.A. down to a lower status – not at all. I love finding new things. And as such, this compilation (discovered thanks to LA producer Spazzkid) is a particularly special one. Now, talking about this whole thing – Amicus Curiae by fledgling collective/label Stratford CT. – would be ridiculous, so I'll start with the first track. It's by American producer sloslylove and it's called 'Ageless' and it's really nice.

Taking cues from sunset-imbued 80s balladic pop, the track is a smooth escape into warmth and nostalgia, led by a cracking marvel of a bassline. A huge cradle of slapbass, thick and soulful, holds within it dreamy fragments of saxophone that lap at the edges of your mind's fondest memories whilst beautiful washes of soft synth watercolour the scene with twilit skies. You're struck by the timelessness of the song, its atmosphere pummelled gently by epic-inspired reverbing drums, slow and steady. It is indeed ageless. A sound to be lost in – an aid for unwinding – yet filled with heady romance on the cusp between action and fantasy.

If you know what's good for you, and you wanna listen to some songs that have a similar vibe to this one, then please I do really urge you to check out Stratford CT.'s collection of curated tracks on Amicus Curae. You can also download it for free/name-your-price; definitely do this.



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