soundscapes

Cenk Akyol’s style has always been distinct and his lists picky. Once again he’s told us that he wasn’t able to find 10 or so releases to enjoy completely this year, so his best of lists consists mostly of songs.

Icelander Yagya has been making music for some time and I’m sure everyone interested in minimal / dubby techno music still remember his 2002 release “Rhythm on Snow” on Force Inc. His third album Rigning is once again inspired by weather, as it’s the Icelandic word for “rain”. It’s also the doinant theme in the album more evident especially on the beatless tracks.

Transcending his earlier more 4/4 minimal techno works this album has managed to fuse clicky electronic beats with ambient scapes, traces of shoegaze and melodies. The balance of these elements on Yo Recuerdo is outstanding with distorted guitars or warm reverby synth washes never scaring the casual listener while giving the serious listener a complex and emotive dimension to enjoy.

Here are some of the dead links from the past months, the Shackleton remix by Ricardo Villalobos has been getting mad clicks but it’s been dead for a while, so are the others. Enjoy!