Variety pack with: SAMCHE, POLARSEN, and Chopstick Orchestra #LoFiHouse #IDM #DrumAndBass
Normally if I’m posting more than one track I’ll go for tracks that blend together. Not this morning. The tracks from SAMCHE, POLARSEN, and Chopstick Orchestra range from lofi House, through IDM and Drum and Bass.
SAMCHE is from the Lebanon. He’s a music producer/DJ/humanitarian worker who has been based in conflict zones such as Yemen, Iraq and Libya. His first songs were composed and recorded from within UN compounds. He explains that, “Building from two years spent in war-torn Yemen as a humanitarian worker, Umi Yemen involves instrumentalization of data on how many civilians were killed or injured each day through 2018-19, as well as sample sounds of fighting in Sana’a recorded in person at the end of 2017.”
That’s quite a lot for a track to bear. What you get is some shuffling IDM lofi house with a sense of other places through the middle eastern strings. There’s gunfire, sadness, and loss all within the track. But it manages to work as piece in its own right, without the weight of the background. It’s a mysterious building dramatic tune.
POLARSEN is Paolo Ursino, an Italian DJ. The track is How, which has been remixed by Conrad Clifton. POLARSEN being from a small village in Sicily, you can hear the influence of the artist’s picturesque surroundings. He says, “Mixing nature and ideal sound to create a natural dance floor, I want the listener to close their eyes and be immersed in a new dimension – the future of dance.” Conrad Clifton ups the pace of the original and does a bit of chopping and dicing to leave something edgier and more anxious. It’s a big floor filling tune. Cowbells aplenty. Synths buzz, soar and ricochet around. Leaves a woozy and slightly disorientating experience. And that’s just grand.
Thirdly, Chopstick Orchestra from Paris, France. They’ve been around since the 90s but I’d not heard them before. They’ve a dark and dank take on drum and bass but infused with a bit more house than you’d normally expect. On Professeur Mangemanche you get losts of dark buzzing bass, a load of razor beats and drums pounding their way to the centre of the earth. This is a back room, basement track. Offers no compromises to the listener. Get on board for a thrill ride or get the hell out of Dodge.
ACID TED 