Now Listening: Cosmic Ambience with a Side of Jazz Drumming
New records from Reed Michaels, Freivogel / Sinclaire, DOVS, ASC, and Raven.
Reed Michaels – Maximalist Minimalisms, Vol. 1 (self-released 2024)
When is a beat tape not a beat tape? When it's an album. Such is the case with Maximalist Minimalisms Vol. 1, the new LP from Bay Area drummer and percussion scientist Reed Michaels. I confess: When I received the album and noticed it contained 38 tracks, mostly about a minute long, I was skeptical. Oh, it’s just a collection of beat tracks, I thought. In fact, it's much more than that: it's a jazz album. It's a paean to the drum break. It's a journey through instrumental hip-hop, funk, and soul. Sparse as the tracks are—with little besides a drum kit, occasional bass guitar, and tape effects—they interlock like puzzle pieces, each part of a greater whole. (Hence the title, perhaps.) And while creative DJs and aspiring producers could borrow from this record like a sample pack, plucking breaks and beats, it's just as rewarding for the straight-through listener.
Steven Hartka
Freivogel / Sinclaire – Untitled (Midnight Shift 2025)
The flute is a staid, safe instrument, the navy three-button suit of woodwinds—or so I thought, anyway. This untitled collaboration, though, between flautist Adam Sinclaire and producer Marco Freivogel, upends what I knew the flute to be capable of. These three pieces, each improvised and recorded in a single take, feature only Sinclaire's flute and Freivogel's Octatrack. If I didn't know that going in, I'd never have guessed—a credit to both the performers' talent and the versatility of the instruments they wield. The overall mood is dark, sometimes even stygian, but not unfriendly: the severity of the A-side is leavened by the inquisitive delicacy of the B-side. Things get particularly interesting when Freivogel chops up melodies and breath sounds into percussive micro-rhythms. On "Two," the effect recalls Trent Reznor's legendary "Eraser"; the clicks and cuts of "Three" and "Four," meanwhile, double as outré DJ tools. The flute, it turns out, is as New Industrial as it gets.
DAS VILLAIN
DOVS – Psychic Geography (Balmat 2025)
DOVS are Johannes Auvinen, aka Tin Man, and Gabo Barranca, aka AAAA, two musicians who explore the outer frontiers of acid, the micro-genre spawned from off-label use of the Roland TB-303. Their new record is proof positive that 40 years on, acid, as a musical form, is more fertile than ever. When we think of acid, we usually think house and techno—Phuture or Plastikman, maybe. Both Auvinen and Barranca have any number of club-weapon heaters in their discographies, but on Psychic Geography, they've done away with drums entirely. What they've revealed in turn is a new kind of motion that propels inward, charting a path toward stillness. The timbres that the pair conjure from their gear are singularly tender and beneficent: at times, they evoke the sound of the human voice to astonishing effect. Can machine music reveal the ineffable? Given lullabies like these, I say the answer is yes.
optian
ASC – Tales of Introspection (quiet details 2025)
If we could put an ear to the vast cosmic expanse above us, it might sound like this new album from veteran electronic musician James Clements, aka ASC. I first discovered ASC around the early 2010s, marveling at his reduced, minimal drum 'n bass approach on labels like Samurai Horo. Those records grappled with space and depth, exploring heft through atmosphere rather than breakbeats. It's no surprise, then, that Clements also produces extraordinary ambient music. Tales of Introspection—an on-the-nose title, but that's OK—is pitch-perfect ambient music in the classic '90s style: think Tetsu Inoue, em:t, or FAX +49-69/450464. Swells of bass drift through the ether, anchored by recurring melodies and the occasional guitar lick, a gentle human touch that brings us back down to earth. And though the album operates in a specific lineage, it's not a derivative listen. What a delight to hear this sound so well-executed.
quiet details
Raven – GNOSIS (Incienso 2025)
Raven might not be a familiar name to listeners outside the Bay Area, but clued-in locals know him well. Under various aliases—including Selim X, Vaguetracks, Jade Snake, and now Raven—San Francisco artist Miles, his mononym, has been producing and self-releasing hazy, jazz-inflected electronic hyper-rhythms since 2017. This LP, Miles' first vinyl release, is the perfect introduction to his smoke-tinged sound. Its eight tracks, some beatless, some driven by metronomic drums, feature an array of interlocking loops and shape-shifting melodies, all awash in the soothing murk of tape hiss. Several tracks are self-referential: crystalline stepped tones converse with each other while corresponding basslines undulate at different tempos. Serene synth-piano interludes serve as waypoints within the labyrinth. The overall effect is intensely hypnotic, techno distilled to its purest constituent elements. Wolfgang Voigt or Actress might be reference points, but Raven's world is entirely his own.
YuX Phasey