A three track EP with no original song to measure the remixes against, which would be nice. Still, there is an original track by
main artist along with a remix of the title track by Tim Dwyer aka Off Land and Daniel Schock aka SubDan. On “One Fleeting Moment
(Off Land recon)”, a melancholic core melody is accompanied by a chorus of robotic chirping crickets and additional anaesthetized
distant synth lines while low bass rhythms steadily thump like a passing AT-ST walker from The Empire Strikes Back film. Much of the
track is like listening through a medicated haze, one fleeting chemically subdued ambien(TM)-infused moment. “One Fleeting Moment
(SubDan’s Lightness of Being remix)” is more upbeat and energetic, while the synth melody is still melancholic and subdued the
beats are livelier. Mid way through the beats pick up as the melancholic ghostly melody is pushed further back to make way for more positive rhythms. “Conundrums” by Sanderson Dear opens with an energetic and positive melody followed by galloping rhythms and a understated reggae calypso styled beats. Low key deep house hooks materialize mid way through, tugging on nostalgia and longing as melodies play against one another. “Conundrums” is made of house and deep house memories but with a more fresh take on rhythms. Sanderson Dear and company maintains a juggling act of balancing different melodies throughout this release, playing them against one another. Whether melancholic or upbeat mixedmoodz, One Fleeting Moment will be Many Fleeting Moments as the listener will be sure to put this album on repeat.

Long time avante-electronic ambient composer, Stephen Bacchus, alias to Grant Mackay has produced excellent ambient several recordings,
runs a superb ambient label, Mirage, and probably curated some of the finest ambient music compilations ever committed to disc such as The Ambient Eclipse. Bacchus knows this genre on a deep level. Straddling the lines between melodic ambient, cinematic drone, and gentle synth pop dwells Stephen Bacchus on The Memory Tap. There are moments on this album that could pass for New Age, a genre this writer is not partial to, more often however, Bacchus keeps to this side of melodic ambientand drone. Opening title track, “The Memory Tap” as well as “A Passing”, “Phases of a Wave”, “Alluvium” and “A Chameleon’s True Colours” are more keyboard-synth-based melodies that evoke 80’s era nostalgia for this listener, but the layers of effects and field recordings reveal sophisticated craft in deeper listens. More evocative songs tend to tracks like “Dreaming in Sanukit”, “Between Earth and Space”, “Comfort Zone”, and “Prodigal Muse” saturated in artful nature dins, broad ambient melodies akin to early, Music for Films-era, Brian Eno, only more refined. Bacchus’ melodies on above mentioned tracks play against field recordings and one another to evoke lush musical dreamscapes. Contrary to most ambient albums, rather than variations of an idea, The Memory Tap features an array of them, each track a fresh experience that contrasts one another. Perhaps a more emotionally
evocative track is “Textured Fields of View” whose melodic overtones tug on the heart strings, where more direct synth notes hit mid way through this longish track. “Dreaming In Sanukit” is another superb ambient piece with waves lapping against shores to dreamy, shimmering ambient mists and punctuated with sparse percussion. You can feel that a lot of care and craft went into each track. Deep, beautiful, often heady, The Memory Tap is an album to be celebrated.

Follow up to Demand Full Automation (Klanggalerie, 2018) Simon Crab continues with motifs on dysfunctional modernity on Invisible Cities, this time off the UK-based Space Rituals label. When not drawing on personal experiences engaged in riot or his years as hub to former band, Bourbonese Qualk, Crab tackles ever dysfunctional modernity that yearns for a utopia but always grasps for dystopia. Continuing with a modus operandi that marries digital electronics to varied acoustic instruments first evidenced in as Bourbonese Qualk, On Uncertainty (Klanggalerie, 2001), Invisible Cities contrasts with more varied sounds that range from orchestral to whimsical to filmic to commercial to melancholic to jubilant and everything in between. Invisible Cities, according to Crab, is about the declining relevance of large urban centres to be replaced by something more decentralized--endless suburbs, perhaps? Tracks names “Stack Interchange”, “Edgelands”, and title track, “Invisible Cities” certainly conveys post-urban themes. The rather mechanical “Stack Interchange” is for orderly lane changes on major highways and the music seems to reflect that, ordered and structured; opens with pensive piano before giving way to rigorous percussion patterns and a domineering bass pulse. Perhaps the prettiest track, “Edgelands” is named for the forgotten industrial parks and the nether regions between nature and development while the music is a string and bass arrangement that suitably echoes the topic, one can almost conjure said edgelands in the minds’ eye. Conversely, the upbeat electronic “Invisible Cities” for it’s gurgling subterranean electro sewer pipe chatter, electro claps and beats, sounds commercial, literally the ideal music to showcase a new car or mobile phone. Darker sides to urban life are captured on “Kodokushi”, a Japanese term for those who ‘expire’ alone at home and it is some time before their remains are discovered. Music on “Kodokushi” is not unlike 80’s era instrumental Depeche Mode, but slowed down and ‘blunted’ with dubby roots reggae accents. “Kubat-Dreieck” and companion track, “No Further Action” are both homage to Crab’s activist/riot years, as pot/pan percussion is accompanied by electronic belches, that end to a robotic prattle continued on the latter. However, “No Further Action” is also an ethno instrumental nod to early Bourbonese Qualk. Two stand-out tracks are “Headless Day” and “Thirst For A Beautiful Mouth” because they are instrumentally accomplished, dramatic, seductive pieces and draws the listener to then be guided by spoken word poetics by Ksenia Sadovski. Percussionists, Fritz Catlin and David J. Smith both contribute to Invisible Cities’ extra layers of rich, rhythmic texture. This album is full of musical ideas and surprises. While Crab has always worked his hybrid electronic and acoustic instrumental stylings, his arrangements will always throw the listener off and challenge her in the best way possible.

A quartet of intricately crafted mostly playful yet manic IDM and though it expresses a range of emotion, the overtones on Niuskiul, tend to the positive. Opening track, “I’m Sad” starts slow, almost melancholic, as the track progresses, manic energy comprised of frenetic breaks and a cacophony of rapid electro chatter, take over. The following, “folded verge” is playfully zany from the start where squelching robo-melody course through hyper breaks that at first fidget and then burst into a full-on fit. Counter melodies on “folded verge” then interplay to beats and the listener is jammed into a crowded sardine can of elaborate beats, bass ‘n bleepin’ melody. 90’s era Nintendo game blips ‘n bloops open “I’m Glad” in a kind of warbly robo-strut before swaggering melody materializes to filtered vocals in a kind of electro-IDM-break Franken-track. Gem “Applied Sciences” concludes with processed field recordings while a distant melody draws closer to then wash-over with a beautifully crafted piece Autechre would be proud of, had they kept to a melodic musical direction. Midway through it seems the melody reached conclusion as it briefly pauses to then return with a balancing act of melodies, field recordings and a kaleidoscope of beats and rhythms that play off one another. Luke Peril is alias to Toronto, Canada’s Erik Lacroix, an accomplished IDM electronic music maker who brings us his danceable takes—where others capture your imagination, Luke Peril appeals to both body and soul.

Croak Elixir is Toronto, Canada based Erik Lacroix who delivers his four track mini-album, Velvet Rope; a foray into often playful IDM with varied stylistic accents, married to a 4/4 dance beat. Title track, “Velvet Rope” seems a homage to artist, Aphex Twin for its recognizable tone fragments taken from the latters’ albums but set to a dance beat with electro accents. The dance beat continues on “Wilhelm (red velvet mix)” but set to unfurling warbly synth tones more evocative of Detroit Technno’s Derrick May. “Wilhelm...” is a balancing act of dance beats, frenetic breaks, manic synth warbling set against a canvas of Detroit-style catchy keyboard melody and perhaps evokes 90’s era electronica wholesomeness. Concluding track, “Ham Sandwich” seems a stylistic nod to IDM-ster Bochum Welt for its melodies and counter-melodies that play off one another set to more restrained beats and a catchy bassline for an emotional paradox of melancholy and joy. Croak Elixir is an artist who draws from other artists like a musical palette to create stylings his own, one foot in homage the other into the future.