01. Left In The Dark
02. I See A Dime
03. Another Story
04. Overpay, Overstay
05. Plane View
06. Bit
07. Thermonics
08. Cig Angel
09. Fathomless Irie
10. Been A Long Night
11. Speed
12. Cig Angel (Dance Mix) (Bonus Track) ※ボーナス・トラックはCD帯裏のダウンロード・コードから入手可能です。
Chicago-based contemporary electronic musician Steve Hauschildt has composed panoramas of synthesized sound for over a decade. First within his former band, Emeralds, an American touchstone of 2000s home-recorded psychedelic noise music, and later across a steady and critically-acclaimed stream of solo releases spanning ambient techno, arpeggiated electronica and post-kosmische styles utilizing synthesizers, computers, and digital processing. In 2018, he extended a collection of rich, visceral tracks titled Dissolvi, his first release on Ghostly International and his most collaborative work to date. Just a year later, Hauschildt returns with Nonlin, an album that’s freer, leaner, and looser, both structurally and conceptually; less linear compared to its predecessor, but still captivating. Developed and recorded in several studios during and around the edges of tour — Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Tbilisi, and Brussels — this material emulates an alienating encounter with a smattering of places, a replicant of culture shock, a solitary and stark experience with uncanny environments, melody and dissonance as oblique locales.
Nonlin finds Hauschildt evolving his palette of tools, integrating modular and granular synthesis. The improvisatory and generative nature of modular systems, when paired with his signature grid-oriented and hand-played techniques, guides these compositions slightly out of line to hypnotic effect. Opener “Cloudloss” permeates the mix with an unsettling smog, which reappears and all but engulfs “A Planet Left Behind.” On cuts like “Attractor B” and “Subtractive Skies,” pockets of air rest between sequenced pulses, whose crumpling and flattening folds build into a restrained rapture of crisp frequencies and milky reverb-swallowed coruscations.
The album’s title track and centerpiece logs on to a foreign network, a fractured percussion signal that modulates and stutters into static amidst curious melodic sparkling in the hazy bandwidth. “Reverse Culture Music” casts an elegant and brooding stream of strings, pizzicato and churning bow from Chicago cellist Lia Kohl, against chiming minimalist synth frameworks. A surprising pattern emerges in the taciturn systems at work. Hauschildt continues to expand his already horizon-wide repertoire, here exploring the effects of corrupting coordinates; a flight subject to the collapsable abilities of time in remote spaces, a smearing of the axis to elegiac ends.
TRACK LIST:
01. Cloudloss
02. Subtractive Skies
03. A Planet Left Behind
04. Attractor B
05. The Nature Remaining
06. Nonlin
07. Reverse Culture Music
08. The Spring in Chartreuse
09. American Spiral
Blue Hawaii have been recording and releasing music for almost a decade. You would think it’d be clockwork by now, but their fourth record, “Open Reduction Internal Fixation”, has proved to be anything but. Spanning genres as diverse as trance, acoustic, UK garage, trip-hop and house, its core elements are lighthearted and groovy. But oddly, “Open Reduction Internal Fixation” was born out of unfortunate circumstance. The duo were scheduled to tour through Southeast Asia & Japan in Autumn ’18 but plans changed suddenly when Agor smashed up his heel in Germany. Instead of the tour, he came back to Montreal for treatment – hence the title – “Open Reduction Internal Fixation”, the foot surgery he received.
Ra was going through her own challenges at this time, being on the heel end of a messy breakup – the kind where you almost get married and spend your life together only to find everything torched to ashes. Much like the surgery, that emotional rollercoaster also left her feeling torn open and fixated. The remedy: hit the club and make a record that makes you scream in joy at the speakers. Agor and Ra connected during their recovery periods, and through their different pains the tunes came together naturally, a healing through fun and friendship. Tied together with signature diva vocals, dreamy tones and liquid beats, “Open Reduction Internal Fixation” is the living proof of turning a bummer situation into a golden opportunity.
Blue Hawaii is a two person electronic project consisting of Ra and Ag, who met doing parties and shows in Montreal and continue to create together despite living in separate cities – split between Montreal and Berlin. “Open Reduction Internal Fixation” is their fourth LP and continues the thread of dreamy electronic pop and dance floor playability.
TRACKLISTING:
1. All The Things
2. Still I Miss U
3. All That Blue
4. Sparkle
5. On a High
6. Trust
7. Boileau
8. Can We Go Back