We've got two feet firmly planted in the world of what's termed IDM today, a longtime favourite sound of mine partly because of that super hi-tech vibe and the occasional glitchy aesthetic. Kicking off with a recent addition I mentioned not so long ago onesix-four by Superstructure from the third entry in the Ghostly Swim series. And my thought are pretty much going to echo what I said about it in passing last time: I am madly in love with this one, it sounds very much like an off-cut of AFX's Analord series. It had been a long time since a track made such an impression on me so quickly, it wastes no time getting down to things and I knew from that intro I was in for a good time. Brilliant, brilliant, brilliant.
Delving a little deeper into the more obscure side of things with Karsten Pflum, another artist I found via Worm Interface's back-catalogue, which I in turn found from Toytronic. I've taken to searching Bandcamp for releases like this, despite them being from decades old defunct labels, a lot of them do appear on Artist's pages, as is the case with Karsten. I started with his debut album, the unassumingly titled Tracks. As you might have guessed from the cover, Karsten's brand of IDM fits into that more playfully eccentric type of IDM - more Plaid than Autechre, lots of squelchy detunes and lovey light sounds. Alberts Dag is exactly the tune I'd point to for a quick summary, wonderfully melodic throughout but especially so here, I can wholeheartedly recommend the full thing if you like this one.
Rounding out with one of those Toytronic releases with Links Berge Rechts Seen. Another case of the above, I had a hooky copy of it for ages before finding it on Bandcamp one day. It's a fine little album, one that is for sure more on the techy glitchy side as you might have been able to tell from the artwork. Much like the artwork, there are times when it feels very much like it's channeling Autechre circa Amber or Tri Repetae or so. That isn't a bad thing at all mind you, but it does mean that most of my choices were a little too glitchy in comparison to what I've posted so far today. Luckily there are plenty of lush examples on the album to go in their stead. From the spaced out ambience of The Light to the subdued Artificial Intelligence-esque Phase 4. I've gone with Planquadrat this time though as I feel like it shares the most in common with the other tracks above, albeit a little more frantic. Still, if you like your IDM a more melodic, give this album a spin and you won't go too wrong.
And that'll do it for the first post of the year! hope it's treating you all well so far, I'm planning on trying to get the remaining few hundred archived posts republished soon enough, though as I get further back the more and more of the tracks featured aren't available anymore. At any rate, I hope you've enjoyed today's selections and I will be back around soon enough with more. Until then, as always, stay safe and enjoy the music.
-CVF
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