Head In The Clouds: Vol 7

It’s August and we’ve settled into a more typical English summer; overcast and brief spells of sunshine punctuated by heavy rain. Here are August’s highlights for the return of the clouds. Take a deep breath, it’s the longest Head in the Clouds yet!

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First up is Olivia. It’s taken from the new Shigeto release, No Better Time Than Now. It’s slow burning ambience at its best and acts as the perfect stepping stone to get you into his new release. If you’re tempted, you can grab a copy here.

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Within thirty seconds of Odyssey, it’s fairly obvious that Dream Koala’s been heavily influenced by The XX. Simple, reverb-soaked guitar is complemented by minimal beats and bass. Things accelerate from 2:30 as synths are added to the mix and impatient beats drive the track ever onwards.

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Next up is Waiting Game, a new track from Banks. In all honesty, I know very little about Banks (to quote the Guardian: “Banks doesn’t have a first name, but she does have a phone number, and she plastered it all over the web recently.”) While Banks delivers her lines perfectly well, the real beauty of this track is in its production. Sohn (Bloodflows, his latest release on 4AD, is available here) turns this into one of the most crushingly claustrophobic tracks of the year. Palpatating bass and swarming synths cluster around Banks’ vocals without ever overcrowding them as the track tramples to its inevitable, emancipating conclusion.

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We’ve featured Gizeh artists at WtD before (Conquering Animal Sound, Mere and Richard Knox & Frederic D. Oberland have all been featured here at one stage or another) and we can now proudly add Shield Patterns to that list. The Rule, mixed by Richard Knox himself, probably wouldn’t sound out of place on a Conquering Animal Sound record and is probably best described by its accompanying press release as “Dusted with delicate vocals and rudimentary beats and loops … and suffused with a strong emotional warmth”. If that’s your cup of tea, pre-order it here.

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We were rather excited when sent the press release for Promise, the debut EP from Malpas, having already seen WtD favourites Cloud Boat sing their praises. Charlemagne, the lead track, weaves together so many different strands that it’s hard to nail down where exactly Malpas fit in the musical kaleidoscope. Constructed from equal parts folk and electronica, it’s really refreshing to hear such an imaginative and at times light-hearted approach taken to producing electronic music.

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She Cut Me is the first we’ve heard of Active Child’s forthcoming EP, Rapor. It’s brief, clocking in at under three minutes, tense and possesses a definite sense of purpose. It’s definitely something of a teaser and has us hungry for more. There’s no confirmed release date for Rapor, but it’s on its way.

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Ifan Dafydd returns with Don’t Know How, a collaboration with Catching Flies. Featuring his trademark fuzzy synths, pitch-shifted vocals, inflexed chord progressions and rich textures, it’s every bit as dancey as anything the Welsh man has produced thus far. Grab it while it’s free!

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Our final track comes from Andrea. Unfortunately, it’s a radio rip from Monki’s BBC Radio 1 show, so the sound quality may not be the greatest. However, that doesn’t detract from the heartbreaking beauty of the Sam Smith sample used. We get a blissful minute of that sample, accompanied by little other than sub bass, before a drum beat joins the fray, desperately tripping over itself to get involved. As Monki explains at the end, it was part of Andrea’s 30 day challenge. You can download the lot for free here. How one man can have so many fresh ideas (he even managed a 31st bonus track!) in such a ludicrously short space of time is beyond me.

 

That’s your lot for August. It’s been a great month and I hope you enjoy at least one of the tracks above. Roll on September!