n5MD - 2017 Year in Review

Ocoeur
Reversed - Remixes

In Spring 2016, n5MD released the critically acclaimed full length Reversed from French composer/sound designer Ocoeur. Reversed - Remixes is the intended prologue to Reversed that includes four reworked pieces by a small hand picked list of artists. Field Rotation, The Green Kingdom, Julien Marchal and Ocoeur himself utilize the original works to maximal effect to create a stellar example of emotive modern composition.

“The EP works as a short, but deeply satisfying diversion as well as a prelude to its predecessor’s elegant fusion of ambient electronica and piano-centric modern classical.” - Stationery Travels

OKADA
Floating Away From the World

This new album is the first created after Gregory Pappas’ road-trip from Mobile Alabama to his newly adopted home of Seattle, Washington. As the title might suggest, this move and subsequent album both figuratively and literally involves forms of escapism. As all previous OKADA works this album is filled with four epic length works that take their time to unfold, envelop and yes, float the listener away from the world. Those familiar with OKADA’s work will find his beat-work as an anchor to provide a sense of tangibility to the ambience.

What Greg has to say about the album & the year 2017: “The most interesting/depressing fact about Floating Away From the World is that it started after a fresh move to Seattle to be with my girlfriend. However, part way through the writing, we started having issues. Towards the end of the writing, we were no longer together. I know it’s naïve to move for someone, but I already was aware of that. It was still worth it.

But, it didn’t change the fact that I hated my life during the tail-end of the album. If you listen closely, you can hear how stark the last track is compared to the rest of the album. I mean, just look at the title of it. That was when everything was already over, and also when the weather was really started to get cold and rainy. All those songs fall in written order, too. The first song was written when I was still with the girl, the middle songs were when things were starting to fall apart, and the fourth was just hell. Fun times.

As for the year 2017, there was a bit of a dark humor to see it kick off with the release of the album. What I was trying to put behind me in 2016, ended up bleeding into 2017. Of course, it was great to see the album out there in the wild, but I couldn’t listen to it after that. That’s actually a good benchmark for my music. The dark visceral clarity in it proved that I successfully laced my emotions in the tracks. In contrast, you can hear the massive shift in sound coming from Love Telepathic, which was written wholly under the love spell by the very same girl!

After Floating Away From The World, I ended up writing a song with Jenni Potts (soon to release!) and did nothing until Summer came around, which is when I wrote three albums under the name Obscure Resonance and went to the beach almost daily until I finally settled down to write more OKADA. Which is 100% done now.

What have I learned from 2017? I haven’t changed as much as I had hoped.

Anyway, the mix I’ve made centers around women, because it seems no matter how things eventually fall apart, each one has taken me somewhere I needed to be, and each one taught me something new about the world and myself. I’m forever grateful for that, and grateful to be where I am now.”

OKADA’s 2017 year end playlist

Loess
Pocosin

The duo of Clay Emerson and Ian Pullman may seem to have gone the way of the glaciers and all but disappeared. Instead, their signature loose aural slit has been slowly and methodically accumulating and now makes up their new full-length Pocosin. Others may have no point of reference and Pocosin is a welcome introduction to the sound of Loess; in a mere blink of an eye from when they began. Pocosin will be out in February 2017 in n5MD and will be available on limited edition white with black swirl on vinyl, clear vinyl and compact disc.

“Absence has done nothing but make Loess' productions missed even more. Those slow, crunchy, stabs adorned in washes of recognizable Loess synthesizer sounds are back and punchier than ever. “ - A Strangely Isolated Place

“The multi-talented duo carefully stitch tempered, tranquil, pensive, and robust low-end tones on Pocosin (...) Loess easily transports the audience through a surreal, foggy haze of black and white visual hues” - Igloo Magazine

Loess’ 2017 year end playlist

Loess: "Some of the more heavily played songs we found, listened to and/or rediscovered this year."

Dreissk
To Nowhere

To Nowhere is the third full-length album from Undead Labs sound designer/composer Kevin Patzelt’s dreissk project. The album features dreissk’s now recognizable post-apocalyptic slant on ambient, post-rock and industrial motifs. Not as foreboding as its predecessors edge_horizon and the finding, To Nowhere’s thematic core is that of a journey.

“Harsh noises, power electronics and nebulous ambient patterns deliver here a singular atmosphere with an intense emotional vibe (...) To Nowhere is a fine collection of sonic melodies and futuristic elegies in minor key, produced by massive synthesized orchestrations, dissonant, tripped-out and melodious post-rock grooves” - Igloo Magazine

“There’s tension on To Nowhere. There’s also reverence and awe. Drone becomes a kind of landscape, distortion an alien language. The triptych of ‘A Long Road’, ‘Of Approaching Light’ and ‘Near The Shore’ are the perfect illustration of this, the latter glistening with hope and optimism” - [sic] Magazine

MIWON
JIGSAWTOOTH

Jigsawtooth is the third album from Hendrik Kroez’s Miwon project. On this long-awaited follow up to his critically revered A to B (City Centre Offices), Kroez displays his skill in marrying motorik techno infused rhythms and soaring pop ambient melodies. This is most evident in “Charezza”, which could very well be the most uplifting track in the n5MD cannon. Other cuts on Jigsawtooth utilize sweeping synth-work that encourage a near kraut/kosmische travel worthy flavor to the proceedings.

“(...) these songs are breezy and light. Still, the project keeps the listener engaged with spot-on songwriting with each passing track” - Positively Underground

Miwon: “Musicians who take a nine year break regarding records come along only rarely – I'm obviously one of them, having released my 3rd album Jigsawtooth on n5MD in April. Thanks to my fans for staying tuned, and big props to Mike for taking such good care of it, bridging the gap between Oakland and Berlin as if we were neighbors. When the record came out I wasn't in my studio but on a drip, battling a serious disease in hospital. Seeing my tunes being released and getting nice feedback was one of those things giving me a sense of normality and hope in rather dark times. It's a known point of view but yeah - music can be like a best pal, a beacon! Keep it close to your heart. Hope you'll enjoy my list of tunes that have given me inspiration and smiles in 2017, starting with Last Days' fireworks and leading to Superlative Fatigue / Errorsmith.”

Miwon’s 2017 year end playlist

LAST DAYS
SEAFARING

Last Days debut, Sea, told the story of one man’s journey. Now with his 5th album Seafaring, Graham Richardson returns to the sea to examine a range of vocations and exploits adrift. Drawing inspiration from shipping routes, to Ernest Shackleton and his crew’s ill-fated voyage on the Endurance, to families being disjointed and reunited, Seafaring goes some way to hint at what the oceans present to us. Seafaring reflects on its subject matter by coherently linking moments that are minimal and still, to those that are compelling and cinematic.

“The kind of music [Last Days] makes - sentimental, evocative instrumentals performed by acoustic piano and strings - leaves plenty room for interpretation, so the little clues offered by track titles and the album artwork are useful in prompting the listener’s imagination. Even without these signposts though, his gentle, expansive arrangements paint vivid mental landscapes often tinged with a sense of melancholy and decay” - The Skinny

(GHOST)
EVERYTHING WE TOUCH TURNS TO DUST

4th full length album from Denver-based IDM producer and ought era electronica aficionado (ghost). Everything We Touch Turns To Dust is the continuing soundtrack to a narrative that has been passed on from the previous (ghost) albums and EPs - Departure, A Vast And Decaying Appearance, Elas EP, and his more recent ambient outing for Sound in Silence, The First Time You Opened Your Eyes.

“A hugely accessible, sonically consistent and cohesive piece of work that, even at a lean thirty-five minutes, never feels insubstantial or fleeting, something even the biggest names in electronic music aren’t always capable of achieving” - Igloo Magazine

“At first glance minimalist, this façade covers some very interesting choices of rhythmics and dynamics. It’s filled with beauty and contemplation, with trepidation and paranoia, and the layering of these loose thematics makes for an intriguing and appealing electronic album” - Can This Even Be Called Music

(ghost)’s 2017 year end playlist

BVDUB
heartless

We’ve been treated to beat-less bvdub works before, but with Heartless, Van Wey has created something far more monolithic than what has come before it. The album starts as bvdub album’s sometimes do: warm washes of sound below the soulfully angelic vocals that Van Wey often gravitates to, this time distant echoes, it seems. But with Heartless this is only your introduction… easing you in before plunging to the deep end. As time passes, what voices existed drown below visceral, amorphous, unabashed waves of sound that are wholeheartedly more sinister in temperament than his previous works, and the perfect manifestation of n5MD’s “heart to hands” ideology.

“The title is cold, but the music is warm (...) Layers of sound drift slowly down to land softly on each other.We wish conversation could be like this. The album may have been conceived as a therapeutic exercise, but by the end it becomes a message: a clear path still exists through the woods” - A Closer Listen

“If Heartless really is an attempt at something starker and colder I’d have to challenge that because I’m finding this new record a thing of wonder. bvdub’s music is typically loaded with emotion rendering this album title something of a misnomer. Heartless? This record? Not for one second. Beatless, I might have accepted but I’ve got to tell you I’m leaning toward Flawless” - [sic] Magazine

bvdub’s 2017 mix for self-titled

To destroy a city
go mirage

Go Mirage is the third full-length album from Chicago cinematic-rock trio To Destroy A City. This follow-up to 2014’s post-rock paragon SUNLESS has an added immediacy due to the soaring nature of guitarist Michael Marshall’s step toward the mix. Yes… There are vocals! Post-rock for the most part has mainly utilized vocals as a texture of afterthought. Yet, TDAC have adeptly included vocals into their cinematic tapestries with ease, and in the process added another layer of melody, modesty, and a surprising sense of hope to their already affecting guitar-driven compositions.

“2017 shows To Destroy A City 3 years stronger, creating equally poignant music with just the right amount of variation from previous efforts. The music is perhaps more structured this time around, but the songs still get plenty loud and heavy” - Arctic Drones

“The band’s sense of melody, timing, and dynamics are nothing less than impeccable as Go Mirage shakes, shimmers, and soars from start to finish. This is pure ear candy with the right amount of grit and gravitas to make you want to listen loud and often” - Stationary Travels

YEAR IN REVIEW

Ocoeur Reversed - Remixes

OKADA Floating Away From the World

Loess Pocosin

Dreissk To Nowhere

MIWON JIGSAWTOOTH

LAST DAYS SEAFARING

(GHOST) EVERYTHING WE TOUCH TURNS TO DUST

BVDUB heartless

To destroy a citygo mirage