• Music

    BlindººCoyote – Mycelium Sonora Outtakes

    March 5, 2024 - By 

    From my friend, the rather legendary Drem Bruinsma‘s project, BlindººCoyote manages to expertly weld together wild electronic music with a relaxed back beat, making the music adventurous but, ultimately, pleasant to listen to.  From BlindººCoyote’s Bandcamp site: “This 33-piece album consists of a deep reflection on a period, albeit a difficult one, from Covid and Confinement to hospitals and surgery, from treatment and opiates, from chronic pain to hope and fear, from social isolation to remaining in touch with the outside world by being online. With this album ends a chapter, a period with a very demanding character. I hope…

  • Music

    Hiemis – Malleus Maleficarum

    February 10, 2024 - By 

    Hiemis are a project out of Spain, not exactly a mecca (yet) for dark ambient bands or dungeon synth, but this album is wonderfully bleak and enveloping.  It has the feel of a lo-fi Spanish or Italian horror soundtrack, but with a lot of warmth to it.  Eerie, of course, but accessible.

  • Music

    Elia y Elizabeth – Alegr​í​a / Ponte Bajo el Sol

    November 6, 2023 - By 

    From Vampi Soul’s Bandcamp site: “Elia y Elizabeth Fleta were two Colombian girls who recorded a handful of songs between 1972 and 1973, acompannied by Jimmy Salcedo and his group La Onda Tres, mixing soft-pop with a touch of tropical-pastoral funk, singer-songwriter sweetened by the subtle perfume of Caribbean music and psychedelia.” Charming, sunny music for a very cold Beijing day.

  • Music

    Groove Paradise – Rodrigo Cano

    September 20, 2023 - By 

    Groove Paradise are a Spanish vaporwave band that sound like the smoothest of smooth jazz.  “Rodrigo Cano” would have been a radio-friendly smash in the late 1980’s, when pastel clothing was the norm and life wasn’t so full of modern complications.  The cover art looks like it should be for a remake of the soundtrack to the Italian classic Zombi, but nonetheless, the music steals the show.

  • Music

    Sinners Club and Groove Paradise – CHROMESOUL

    May 18, 2023 - By 

    I have to admit ignorance to what is known as barber beats, a sub-genre of Vaporwave, but if Sinners Club and Groove Paradise out of Spain are an example of what can be done with the genre, I quite like it.  The beats are infinitely more sophisticated than what you hear on most vaporwave releases (why most of these are given away for free), and the bass-heavy sound and relaxed groove makes for a chilled-out listening experience.