Ambient Electronic: Bålsam - Basement God﹋﹌◮ (2020)

79 / 100

Basement God﹋﹌◮ showcases Bålsam’s skill in merging organic and electronic textures, creating vivid natural imagery through sound.

This time, we’re still in the electronic realm through a release by Bålsam, which differs quite a bit from the two albums I reviewed earlier.

It’s an EP titled Basement God﹋﹌◮, released on April 16, 2020. With a name as peculiar as those found in vaporwave releases, it offers ambient electronic/downtempo music with Bålsam’s usual touch—field recordings such as flowing water in “River Valley” and bird chirps plus human voices and chants in “Kambô.” Meanwhile, the first track seems to use a more minimal form of noise.

The song “Intro – Cave” also employs aerophone-like sounds to emphasize natural traits associated with Asian regions, while drum hits seemingly sourced from membranophones reinforce a tropical forest atmosphere reminiscent of Asia-Africa. “River Valley” itself has an intriguing transition that creates a similar mood, moving from synth sounds to a plucked instrument resembling a koto, and a short traditional hum between 02:33–03:47. “Kambô” serves as the longest and calmest track, and rightfully the best here. The EP closes with a collaboration between Bålsam and Lilac Carlo, producing a contrasting and highly synthetic output which I’d personally skip.

Thus, even though it diverges slightly from pure ambient, Bålsam still manages to deliver an outstanding and accessible musical blend. Highly recommended for fans of Bonobo, Boards of Canada, and Tycho.

Comments

Breakcore: Subheroine - End. (2025)

77 / 100 End. is Subheroine ’s most immersive and emotionally textured work yet ... Is being a week late enough to make a new release feel cold and stale? Maybe it’s the effect of our fast-paced modern world and the FOMO trend. Who knows. Whatever. Alright then, let’s welcome a new breakcore/drum & bass album (though it runs under 30 minutes) from Subheroine : End. ! End. by SUBHEROINE Released just on November 7 via Japan’s veteran breakcore label, Lost Frog Productions , End . delivers a noticeably more atmospheric vibe this time. So, tagging it as atmospheric drum & bass makes perfect sense, while the “depressive” tag seems to apply only to the cover art. But is that really the case? As always, there are surprises when reviewing music—those unexpected moments that make certain tracks sound more intriguing than expected. The most prominent depressive elements appear in the sampled voice of an anime girl sounding shocked or weakened in...

Soundtrack: Dragica Kahlina - Ava Chapter 1 OST (2022)

78 / 100 A compelling dark ambient soundtrack , best enjoyed by fans of atmospheric and cosmic soundscapes rather than traditional game OST seekers. Ava is a mobile puzzle game inspired by tarot cards , developed by Stardust LLC . It was released in four chapters, rolled out periodically between February 2020 and the first quarter of 2021. While there’s a claim that the game won an award, it was never explained exactly where or what it won. For the soundtrack of Chapter 1, Stardust LLC collaborated with local, Zurich-based artist Dragica Kahlina . Ava Chapter 1 OST by Dragica Kahlina Although the game came out in 2020, Kahlina only uploaded the OST two years later on Bandcamp , using cover art from Level 11: The Crown that features Ava herself. The atmosphere of darkness and cosmic vastness is strongly felt throughout the eleven tracks, built primarily on dark ambient foundations and layered with various sounds: echoing stick-like noises...

Avant-Garde: 1024756 - Dead Star Escape (2022)

65 / 100 A dense and dizzying journey into experimental and avant-garde territory, Dead Star Escape trades conventional structure for abstract textures and jazz-inflected grooves, shifting far from 1024756 ’s earlier hip-hop/soul leanings. Best suited for listeners who crave disorienting, free-form soundscapes rather than playlist-friendly tracks. Dead Star Escape is yet another abstract single from Brisbane , Australia’s experimental/avant-garde project 1024756 , even though neither genre tag appears on their Bandcamp page. Released on May 5, 2022, this track marks the artist’s second single. AUM173.3 - DEAD STAR ESCAPE by 1024756 Running for seven minutes, the song opens with the roar of machinery from a synth drifting in outer space, layered with the hum of alien waves. This slowly transforms into avant-garde rock territory, driven by drums and bass, with an array of keyboards and synths in a jazz-like manner, though notably without an...

Search This Blog