taken from: VC-118A - Spiritual Machines - Delsin Records - 146dsr

vinyl: https://www.delsinrecords.com/release/6980
digital: https://chaindata.bandcamp.com/album/spiritual-machines

Following 2019’s Inside, VC-118A returns to Delsin to present his fourth album, Spiritual Machines. It marks an exciting shift in focus for Samuel van Dijk as his flagship project nears a decade skirting the deeper ends of techno and electro.

Over the past two and half years, van Dijk forensically reviewed the key aspects of his production process as he dug down in search of the essence of the VC-118A sound. By creating his own complement of sample banks, software racks and devices, van Dijk was able to work with a hybridised analogue-digital system purely of his own making. Less in thrall to the strict rigours of techno and electro standards, Spiritual Machines’ 13 album tracks encompass more fluid shifts into abstract and downtempo, dub-inflected realms, without losing sight of the elements that have made VC-118A so compelling from the beginning.

Burnished machine soul, aqueous atmospherics and immaculate drum programming abound, but in the mellow, enveloping sound world of Spiritual Machines you can hear van Dijk guiding his music into a broader form that sounds at once more assured and more inspired.

Artwork designed by Samuel van Dijk.

VC-118A - Serge Extract (taken from Spiritual Machines)

Where The Stars Sleep

Setting the mark for Oslo's diverse sonic expressions.

@fochs-koshka

Fochs Koshka - Derek

Out on Air Texture album VA Place:France 

Buy here : https://musicandactivism.bandcamp.com/track/elise-massoni-she-had-a-thing-with-colours

🌱 2021

Place:France

elise Massoni - she had a thing with colours 🌸 [AIR TEXTURE]

VOITAX MIX 073 | Forma

Dan Snazelle - Bathe In Wine

Really showing a lot of Numan influence on this one!  

Today's Interbay track (did you know that there's a never before heard Interbay track dropping every single day?  You really should follow this page.  The rollercoaster is a fun one!) is one of the tracks where I start by looking for fun words that start with unusual letters and see what my brain cooks up as far as some music that I imagine would fit that word as chosen for the title of the song.  

(When you've dropped brand new tracks for 470 consecutive days, sometimes you need to change your process every so often to not just make the same track over and over again.  And, leaving certain decisions to fate--or, in this case, to a dictionary--can push you into creative places you might not have ended up on your own!  I feel like I need to thank Brian Eno here, but I wasn't directly following any of his creative strategies, really.  I just like making tracks with titles that incorporate the whole alphabet, and this is how I figured out how to do that.)  

Sometimes, vast impacts can have origins from what might seem like insignificant changes.  That was what the title of this track inspired me to work towards.  That's not what Xylyl means, but it does talk about the results of what happens to a few specific things when removing a hydrogen atom.  Thus the "remove one atom and the whole world changes" conceit--which is more of an idea connected to "the butterfly effect" than anything to do with isomeric monovalent radicals derived from the three xylenes.  

(The best thing about Interbay for me is that I get to learn about so many random things!)  

I also look for inspirations by trying different plugins--both instruments and effects--to see how using them informs my creative process.  My choices, often quite random and based on the names of plugins I've collected over the past couple of years, can either focus an idea towards a specific sound goal...or it can spread it out and become the sort of mishmash that Interbay, if it is known at all, is known for...  

This time, I got pushed into a late 70s early 90s synth vibe.  One of the sounds I discovered in a plugin I've only used rarely, sounded a lot like Gary Numan...so, I then chose to use the Vox Humana sound that Numan used so effectively from a different plugin...and all that seemed to fit the unusual retro drum machine that I was working with.  Unusual in that the drum sounds it had were somewhat thin and not nearly as punchy/thumpy as modern dance music expects (though, I did beef that sound up with some fx in this end mix.)  

One other touchstone here?  The title track to the "Moonlight and Muzak" album by M--the album that has "Pop Muzik" on it, which could be considered the first new wave/synth pop hit.

I think you're starting to see how this track ended up sounding like it does.  Though, I can't answer the question of why there seems to be a handful of bees that are flying back and forth across the stereo spectrum...or why the occasional brass sounds like it was burned in a tragic fire.  I mean, I made those sounds do those things--but I don't have a thematic reason for having done so.  (Sometimes, I just embrace happy accidents and allow myself to like incongruent things.  Blame neurodivergence if you'd like.)  

Somehow, I ended up with a track that is somehow simultaneous deep but simple, downtempo but at a surprisingly quick tempo, atmospheric but still with forward momentum.  

In other words, I made an Interbay track.  They don't always make sense--but hopefully they're never dull.  

Listen to "Xylyl" and let me know what you think.  I hope you like it (and give it a like if you do.)  You are also encouraged to repost, share, comment, add to a playlist...and, of course, to follow this page for even more Interbay.  (You can also check out the huge back catalog found here, or throw on one of the three all-Interbay playlists available currently.)

"Xylyl" *SoundCloud Exclusive*

Scarred

Det Dryper

SSTROM - Drenched 5 (Rösten 8.2)

Following her strong debut EP on Arcola, Copenhagen’s Anastasia Kristensen, renowned for her energetic sets, presents M A X I M A, a four-track EP of animated techno and elaborate sonic geometries.

Kaleidoscopic patterns and angular drums launch straight through the space-time continuum. Fusing elements both hyper modern and old school, Anastasia crafts an expansive package for the most discerning psychonauts.

M A X I M A is out 22 November.

M A X I M A

Maxima

BUY / STREAM

Anastasia Kristensen - Maxima

sp33d xo

UK record label based at fabric, East London. Run in part by Rob Booth (Electronic Explorations)

Anastasia Kristensen - Maxima

Houndstooth