DOS – Future Paradise
Crystalline modern electro from Austrian producer DOS (real name Noah Gorbach). The drums are ace here, but it’s hard to focus on anything but that enormous mid-90s ROMpler piano riff. This is what it would have sounded like had Robert Miles decided to produce electro instead of radio trance, and gosh, I really wish he had. As someone who finds classic machine funk rhythms deeply irresistable and infectious, I often wish more producers of the genre would stray a bit from the arpeggio basses, robot vocals, and bleep boops. I love all that, but there’s so much more gold to be mined here. DOS does that with flying colors here; can’t get enough of this one. No bandcamp, unfortunately, but you can find this for streaming or buy the vinyl direct from the label. (Maybe it’s also on places like beatport?)
DOS – “Future Paradise”
Gliesse – Metadata
OK, now regardless of what I was saying before, I still do totally get down with some proper robotic machine funk. As much as I meant what I said about the untapped potential of the genre to explore other melodic avenues, there’s still plenty to be said for metallic percussion, bubbling synthetic basslines, and disembodied mechanoid vocals. Case in point, this track from Moscow-based producer Gliesse (Ilya Chunakov). This warbles its way up and down your Ethernet cables, knocking down any trojan horses in its path, eating all your cookies along the way. Mean stuff in the best way. Grab this on bandcamp or find it for streaming all over.
Gliesse – “Metadata”
Majorvoid – Ether
I learned recently that temperature affects the way we perceive sound. There are obviously more factors at play than I can list here, but generally speaking, at higher ground temperatures, sound waves tend to move upward and outward, whereas when ground temperatures are lower than the air above, soundwaves bend back toward the ground, allowing them to be heard from farther away. That’s apparently the reason why we can hear distant sounds better on crisp, cool mornings and cold nights than we can on hot days; it’s not just perception but rather a real physical phenomenon. All this to say, Majorvoid (Ofir Marcovich) is an artist who claims to live in Antarctica. I won’t question the veracity of his claim; it’s just fun to imagine that maybe the jungle he makes, inspired by early 2000s console games, sounds totally different aired across the continent’s vast ice sheets. Or maybe he’s broadcasting it on McMurdo Station pirate radio. This track doesn’t give icy vibes, though; it reminds me more of the music from a tropical level in Sonic Adventure 2 on Dreamcast. I suppose if you’re freezing on the South Pole, you would be inclined to make aspirationally warm music. No bandcamp for this, but Marcovich was kind enough to let me post the mp3 for y’all here. Streaming all over, too.
Majorvoid – “Ether”