Back To MIne with Delay Grounds

Delay Grounds’ music incorporates elements of abstract, sample-based percussion, experimental synthesis and techno. And on this gleaming new five-tracker, the ‘Upcycling’ EP sees the experimental sound artist traverse a multitude of styles absolutely flawlessly and sits so effortlessly amongst others in his particular field, sitting nicely alongside the likes of Batu, TSVI and Object Blue. A beautiful Back To Mine 10 follows…

 

Broadcast – Color Me In

I think this is my favourite intro to an album ever. Broadcast are one of my all time faves and this album (Haha Sound) has had a massive influence on the way I think about production, it’s the juxtaposition between the often quite sweet and innocent songs and the noisy elements in their music that hits me just in the right spot. This track has a kinda cinematic quality to it that I find very alluring, you can almost see the music. I think it’s like watching a film or something. 

Broadcast - Colour Me In

Animal Collective – In The Flowers 
Anco are one of those bands I always return to as they are always pushing themselves and their sound, I don’t like everything they have put out, but there is a pretty magical quality to loads of their music that is very hard to find elsewhere. This song reminds me of being 20 and sitting around in smokey front rooms with bozo buds playing video games and just generally bumming about, the good old days. I could have chosen a good few of their tracks but had to go for this one as the bitter sweet psychedelic euphoria really resonates with me. 
AYA - DaRE u to sour lips with me

AYA – DaRE u to sour lips with me
Formerly known as LOFT, AYA is one of my absolute faves at the moment. It’s the kinda music I think fuck I wish I could do that, I don’t mean that in annoying technical kinda way (although that too) it’s just incredibly well written music. The music is hard as nails but simultaneously tender, intricate, refined and hilarious all in one. Massive shout out to the EP Three Settlements Four Ways as well, I listen to that all the time; still trying to figure out what the hell is going on there. 
Animal Collective - In the Flowers

Clark – There’s a Distance In You
Too much music exists for me to be able to say I have a favourite artist, it’s a needless and pointless exercise that I refuse to be a part of as you will likely hear something tomorrow that will totally reshape your understanding of music and reality in general. Clark is probably my favourite though I reckon (at least one of them ha). I probably should have shared a track called The Grit In The Pearl as the track name pretty much sums up what is so good about Chris’s music, but doing it this way I get to make you listen to two. 
Clark - There's a distance in you (2014)

patten – Blush Mosaic
This track represents a shift in my taste in electronic music. It was upon hearing this tune I realised the potential of the “aesthetics of failure” though it was a few years before I would actually hear about the term and understand it. This track is just super wonky, the layers are all sightly out of time and everything is in constant fluctuation. Loads of little glitchy details and it never does what you think it’s gonna do. 10/10 patten mate good work. Also met the guy briefly at Simple Things Festival in Bristol and he was unbelievably lovely so top marks for that too. 
patten - Blush mosaic

Djrum – Showreel pt.2
This was my favourite song for approximately 7 months, 12 days, 2 hours and 48 seconds. Such a good’un this one. I really love the arrangement of this track, slowly building/developing, always moving forward with all that washy textural noise slushing from side to side. It’s the atmosphere though and the way the layers sit together, sad and saturated. I found this track just at the right time, first year of Uni, mournfully moving away from old relationships and friends, but knowing it was the right thing to do. 
Djrum - Showreel, Pt. 2

CAN – Moonshake 
People say this about a lot of music, but CAN really were ahead of their time. They’re a band that have had a huge impact on me in the past and present, I still hear little details in tracks I must have heard one hundred times that surprise me. This track for me is all about the little instrumental section in the middle (beginning around 1:05), a neatly arranged nut job collection of amazing sounds that are so much fun to listen to. Check out albums Future Days and Ege Bamyasi if you like this. 

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith – Abstractions 
If you ever have a spare 22 minutes and 4 seconds, switch your phone off, sit down, turn the lights off, get some wine or whatever you wanna ingest/smoke and crack on with watching this. Get it up on a projector or something you know what I’m saying, make it look nice and that. Kaitlyn is amazing, I saw her a couple of years ago at the IMAX in Bristol and jaw fully dropped for the whole performance. I genuinely could not believe that a human was capable of doing something like that, it was like watching a dance rather than a modular synth performance. It finished, I walked out and about a minute after I left auditorium I burst into tears in front of all of my mates it was well embarrassing (jokes all my mates are hyper sensitive cry babies too). I was in shock like for realsies. It’s the only gig I have ever cried at and I totally didn’t see it coming. 

The Supremes – Keep Me Hanging On
I really wanted to sneak some pop music into this list as I am unashamedly a bit of a pop princess. Pop as an area of music is really interesting to me cause it’s like right there out in the open for everyone to hear and I think because of this it is sometimes overlooked by the musical elite among us (haha). There are loads of pop tracks I could have chosen from the last 40 years or so but I had to go for this one cause it just wraps up everything that’s great about pop. Most people would tell me off and say that this is a Motown tune, and they’d be right I guess, but the reason I chose this one is because I think it’s kinda genre-less and it has its own thing going on. It’s a well produced, well written absolute banger that doesn’t care about genres or whatever you know? It’s just the sound of people writing excellent music cause they love doing it.   
The Supremes-You Keep Me Hangin' On

Sophie – Livestream Heav3N Suspended
The only way to round off a list like this. I find myself resisting writing anything on this one, if you know then you know and if you don’t then just listen. My heart goes out to you SOPHIE you were truly one of a kind and an inspiration to all of us. You hadn’t even gotten started. RIP <3 XOXO
SOPHIE LIVESTREAM HEAV3N SUSPENDED