Although he’s been playing in bands and home producing for thirty odd years, Earthen Sea has only started seeping into the public consciousness with some consistently great deeper than deep house and downtempo electronic music since 2014, and he’s been gradually reducing the tempo and energy levels since.
His latest LP, released once again on the ever great Kranky label, is currently my daughter’s post bath/pre-bed soundtrack of choice and chill out recommendations don’t get any better than that. She knows her tunes.
There’s a familiarity to what Earthen Sea does and he’s certainly not alone there, not that that’s even a bad thing, I guess I’m just fussier and more musically restless than most. What sets him apart from most downtempo electronic producers though is his purity of purpose and ability to distill multiple-facets of post-80s electronic music into his own brand of late night, meticulously looped, low lit listening.
“Present Day” provides the perfect gateway to the new LP with its surprisingly soft edged, almost summery vibe before “Another Space” sets off on an opiated kosmische voyage, gliding nonchalantly past Space X rockets as it searches for deeper meaning, paving the way for “Sunlit Leaving” and its spliced and diced jazz beats that have been bathed in the sort of dub echoes that early K&D used to dream of.
And so the LP continues, weaving its path through (unusually) cosier and classic chill out nodding sounds, whilst not forgetting the more discerning, dub tickled density that he’s better known for. It’s beautifully produced, and as usual he’s twisted those classic downtempo beats into the perfect rhythmic skeleton for his lazy looping and soundscapery, but this time it feels like he’s finally turned up the heating in the studio and decided not to repair the latest rip in the studio’s long serving black out blinds. I’ll even play this one in the mornings.
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