Attempting to recreate the golden yesterdays of Jose Padilla’s White Isle sunsets with the tunes of today…

John Beltran / Soft Rain / Music For Dreams

The second teaser from John Beltran’s forthcoming album, “Sunrise And The life We Live”, is titled “Soft Rain”. Beginning with beats that tumble in complex patterns, appearing to pay tribute to Rhythim Is Rhythim’s epic “Icon”, keys then send in string-like stabs, that gradually shape a romantic melody. The track’s focus, though, is a computerised choir, a chorus of Art Of Noise / “Moments In Love” like treated vocal fragments. 

Cervo / Island In The Currents / Earthly Measures

“Island In The Currents” is a 6-track EP from Cervo. It finds the Stockport-based producer creating tunes for an imagined tropics, while experimenting with tempos. Everything on offer is arranged around sun-stroked, percolating, programmed patterns. Giving off a definite Afro-cosmic feel. Machines mimic dancing marimba motifs, while also moving between manufacturing soft, uplifting, cooling breeze-like swells and temperature raising rave sirens. At the higher end, “Pescaia II” and “Sunken Kingdom” both boast prominent 4 / 4 rhythms, and “Idris Gawr” is a dubby dose of skipping, party-whistle blowing house. “Body To Move” is a lively Latin jazz piano loop. “Munyonyo Echoes”, however, drops the BPMS way down low, for a percussive, tribal ritual full of atmospheric sighs and field recordings of children at play in the Ugandan lakeside community of its title. The standout is the chugging, conga-ed, and bongo-ed, “Windsweep”, whose slow squelching and bleeping recalls Wolf Muller’s early output. 

Dedekind Cut / Super Natural / God Tier Virgo, Ojas Music, The Vinyl Factory

Coming from Northern California Fred Welton Warmsley III made his name, under the alias Lee Bannon, as a beat maker in the late 2000s. Plying his trade for tons of hip hop artists, and recording solo drum-driven projects for labels such as Ninja Tune and Plug Research. However, taking the new title Dedekind Cut, in 2015 he made the seemingly radical move into ambient. His productions receiving significant acclaim and picked up by the respected imprints Hospital and Kranky. His new album, “Dede-K-Tion”, due to be released in September, features 3 collaborations with the iconic Japanese musician Ryuichi Sakamoto. Two of these tracks, for now, remain under wraps, but “Super Natural” is an understated modern classical masterpiece. The late maestro’s piano playing is unmistakable. Firmly hit notes, left, sustained long enough for each to find the space to resonate. Their rich, deep tone seemingly effortlessly invoking emotion and giving rise to a melody as moving – almost – as anything on “Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence”. Warmsley introduces subtle electronic treatments and percussive touches. Keeping the additional orchestration – bowed violin and cello – to a sympathetic minimum. 

Grassskirt / Notes From My Island / Music For Dreams

Jørn Kristensen aka Grassskirt was one of the first artists to record for Copenhagen-based Balearic institution Music For Dreams. He released a couple of singles and an album, “Hey Music Lover”, but then disappeared from the roster in 2003. He has, however, recently returned with a new long-player, “Notes From My Island”. The set, like the vast majority of the imprint’s catalogue is specifically designed for sipping a cocktail as at the sun sinks, but still employs a range of tempos, with some of the numbers, for sure, aimed at the dance floor. The track that leapt out for me, though, was “Twilight Dolphins”. Constructed from a kalimba’s delicately dancing steel tongues, the piece paints a picture of a carefree, Wally Badarou-esque Caribbean. Its sunny sonics of subtly shaken percussion building to bright, uplifting brass and perfect for witnessing the beginning of a beautiful, brand new day. 

Hug / Luaka Bop

“Hug” is a musical huddle of 3 talented Californian friends Devendra Banhart, Noah Georgeson and Gyan Riley. The latter, son of minimalist legend, Terry Riley. Together they’ve recorded an album’s worth of material for Luaka Bop, which the label have promo’d with 2 singles. The first, “Cow With Half Moon Parasol” features croaking frogs and pretty, picked strings that sound more like harp than guitar. Shakers softly shake and the bass bubbles and bulges. Its strange, slightly funky new weird folk closing with a coda of cascading crystalline computerised chimes. The second, “Catatumbo” is a cosmic, pastoral wash of layered, elegant, echoed fretwork. Winds blowing through laid-back, blues-y bent notes and gentle mandolin strumming. 

Ken-Ichiro Isoda / Tanekoma / Oath

Following, “Interwoven”, his recent collaboration with aus, Japanese ambient / kankyo ongaku pioneer Ken-Ichiro Isoda has a new solo collection, “Epilogue”, lined up for Istanbul’s Oath. Across the album’s 8 tracks, Isoda revisits and reinvents pieces from throughout his 40 year + career. Compositions from sought after past releases and commissions for TV and film. “Tanekoma” is the single that trailers the set. Named after the Japanese robin that inhabits the mountains of Hachijo, the island that Isoda currently calls home, the composition showcases the bird’s field recorded song. Isoda providing the rare creature with peaceful accompaniment on careful keys whose tones move between electric piano and vibraphone. Some sections are muted and seem to stretch backwards, while Dogen Kinowaki gently blows alto and bass flutes. The musician mic’d so intimately you can hear him breathing. 

Space Ghost / Back From Reality / Peace World Records

Oakland producer Space Ghost’s latest album, “Back From Reality” is full of smooth, sun worshiping sounds, similar to the new long-players from Cervo and Grassskirt. Like those releases, the set contains downtempo and uptempo moments. The latter leaning toward authentically recreating the warm, Mediterranean vibe of 90s Italian house landmarks by Don Carlos and his contemporaries. However, its the slower numbers that for me standout. “VGM”begins as serene bleeps and blips, clouds, swells of sustained sonic vapour. Detroit-ish strings then introduce a bionic but sedate, walking, contrabass line. “Ambient techno” in the masterful mode of Global Communication’s remix of Warp 69’s “Natural High”, it also gives off tiny twists of texture that seem to spin into infinity, a la Mixmaster Morris’ radical reshape of Coldcut’s “Autumn Leaves”. The title track too is a highlight. Built around a shuffling, filtered break, it, again, generates a syncopated Sci-Fi jazz swing. Details busy in its distance suggest birds twittering and tapes spinning, while its main melody is a whistling key refrain. These elements, collectively, creating a classic Cafe del Mar sunset vibe.