Jacana People & Vraell – Paper Thin
A pristine slice of organic electronica from UK duo Jacana People, with vocals and guitar by Vraell (Alessio Scozzaro). This is sunshine on a cold spring morning, melting the frost, and turning dew to vapor. I’ve also included their previous single–bouncier but still pillowey and soft around the edges–it lands more as a modern take on what might have been a B-side of an off-album Orbital 12″. Both songs are from Jacana People’s upcoming EP, Breaker, out June 26, but you can grab them both on bandcamp now or find them on the streamers.
Jacana People & Vraell – “Paper Thin”
Jacana People – “Nudge”
Gryr – Hymn
I wrote about Gryr (Jonatan Josefsson) just a few weeks ago, sharing the first two songs from his Hymn EP. He just released the title track to that EP. While I described the last two songs he shared as trancelike and perfect for driving across the tundra, this last one lives up to its name, abandoning most of the rhythmic pulse in favor of elemental spiritualism and tranquility. Instead of a cool, long-sighted view across the horizon, this feels more like the ripple of spring water passing through your fingers. No bandcamp for this, unfortunately, but Josefsson graciously let me share with you the mp3 here; you can also find this for streaming all over.
Gryr – “Hymn”
Symbol World – The Door
Finally tonight is a track from Symbol World (Justin Gohl), a Detroit-area producer I don’t know much about–which may be due to the fact that he seems to have just recently started to release music. This is another one that at first seems like it wouldn’t be out-of-place on a late 90s Orbital or Underworld record. Creamy FM pads, gentle synthetic Karplus-Strong bell strikes, buried snare fill risers–all wonderfully referential. But three quarters of the way through the song, just when you think you’ve got it all figured out, there’s a sudden pseudo-drop that takes it into distinctly modern territory. Promising stuff here. You can grab this on bandcamp or find it for streaming, but Gohl was also kind enough to let me upload the mp3 for you here.
Symbol World – “The Door”