2021 IN REVIEW
Here we are at the close of another year. 2021 I do think, was our busiest year. While putting this 'year in review' together, the volume of releases startled me a bit. Thankfully, I have a forge ahead mentality, and despite all the pandemic and personal setbacks this year, I feel 2021 is one of the best years in n5's history and one of those times when one loses themselves in their work. Below is a timeline of the fifteen(!!!) releases I had the pleasure of releasing via n5MD this year. I am thankful for all of your support, enthusiasm, and kind words. As I always say, the artists make n5MD what it is; it's a fact that I am grateful for.
Looking ahead to 2022, we've got nearly the whole schedule filled and with some stylistically varied and exciting releases.
I hope you had a happy holidays in whatever that means to you and I wish you an excellent new year. I know I keep saying this, but it is bound to be accurate at one point: We'll get through all this together.
Please stay safe and well, and be good to each another.
regards,
-Mike Cadoo
Gimmik
Deux Nouvelles
Deux Nouvelles is the second half of Gimmik's ambient/drone companion releases, an extension of 2020's Entre Les Chambres. The album, much like its predecessor, is comprised of two twenty-minute beatless ambient pieces created with tranquility and relaxation in mind. This release was also n5MD's first cassette release, and it came housed in a hand-made suede bag crafted by n5 alumn Another Electronic Musician's life partner Geri Rex.
Daniel McCagh
Imagining Machines
Daniel sent us this three-movement piece in late 2020, and I found it an excellent stopgap release until his sophomore album is completed sometime in 2022. We released Imagining Machines as a surprise release, which I'd like to do more of, and like most of Daniel's works, he paints with distortion, akin to how others use reverb. Such distortion gives his music a texture not often found in ambient music, a signature grit.
Tangent
Evolutinary Cycles
Robbert and Ralph eschewed the piano leanings of their previous album Approaching Complexity and upped the gloomy introspection. Evolutionary Cycles is an apt title as it evolves their sound into sharp focus. This album, as was Dryft's From Stasis, was meant to be released on the same day in the Fall of 2020; however, pressing delays with a plant that didn't know what they were doing pushed it into 2021.
It was worth the wait.
Gimmik
Cloudwalker
While we released Gimmik's ambient bookend albums Entre Les Chambres and Deux Nouvelles, Cloudwalker was his proper comeback album. Full of ought-era IDM beats, downtempo groove, and some surprisingly light electro, Cloudwalker was a "welcome back" to a statesman of the experimental electronica genre. We repackaged some of his older albums and EPs for digital consumption to coincide with his return under the Gimmik name.
PCM
Macro
Macro is PCM's sophomore release, which features darker hues than their debut Attraverso. By chance, weighted darkness became a theme with n5MD in 2021. The album found the trio pushing their sound into post-rock territory. Macro also features stunning collaboratinos with Eraldo Bernocchi and Calibro 35's Massimo Martellotta.
vcam
Cycle
This year June 5th was international MiniDisc Day, and this year, we participated by releasing Cycle on MiniDisc by Washington-based experimental artist vcam. Vcam's output can be summarized by one word: Autechrian. James loves his Nord Leads and is a gifted midi CC message sculptor.
Jason van Wyk
Threads
Threads arrived in my inbox just before the pandemic went in full swing (yes, Feb 2020). I found it very helpful in coping with what was transpiring. The album was a bit of a shift in Jason's style as it was far more texturally rich and a bit more claustrophobic than his previous output. There is so much hiding in Threads. Jason was extremely patient with the manufacturing process as we had the artwork in three different companies' templates before it went to press.
Winterlight
Gestural Abstractions
One of the more sunkissed n5MD releases this year was from Winterlight. They are now a Father/Daughter duo of Tim and Bel Ingham. As a duo, Winterlights works are more widescreen and stretch out. The dream-pop elements are still ever-present, but Bel's inclusion as bassist and co-songwriter has Winterlight experimenting more outside the previous formula. Unfortunately, this album was the first one in a long line of delays due to the supply chain. An unfortunate pandemic byproduct that still plagues the industry today.
ILUITEQ
The Loss of Wilderness
The Loss of Wilderness is ILUITEQ's sophomore album and features the duo's sonnets to climate change, deforestation, and urban sprawl. Surprisingly, it is pastoral with such a heavy message, making the album more of a tribute to wilderness lost than a warning of our impending doom.
Ocoeur
Connections
Fall began with a new album from Franck Zaragoza's Ocoeur: Connections. Zaragoza found that he could further his connections with those closest to him during the pandemic. A sort of involuntary cultivation of the personal relationships around him. Doing such a thing and writing an album such as Connections is no small feat. Much like Tangent's Evolutionary Cycles, Connections is the most focused Ocoeur album in Zaragoza's catalog to date.
Loess
totems
2021 even had a surprise! The return of Loess. Clay and Ian reached out from their Pine Barrens habitat to send over Totems. The album is a more melodic and organic sounding outing than their more recent output. Yet, it still boasts that otherwordly and unique Loess sound. Refinement also became a common thread through n5MD's 2021 output.
Stray Theories
This Light
With his next Stray Theories album, This Light, Micha Templeton Wolfe brought things to a lofty yet grounded place. This Light is an amalgam of cinematic post-rock, ambient, and neo-classical. It is quite an achievement as Micha has taken emotive themes from his work in tv and film and amplified them to significant effect. What I originally wrote about This Light: "This Light is equal parts majesty, confidence, sincerity, and sympathy." I still wholeheartedly stand by.
Dryft
From Stasis
By this point, n5MD's 2021 release schedule was a bit rapid-fire.
We rounded out the year with three releases pushing the label into far murkier waters. Initially completed in 2019, my newest Dryft album, From Stasis, finally saw the light of day in 2021. In writing for the album, I made a conscious decision not to shy away from what I am now calling "glockisms" and created an album that fans of my output with gridlock seemed to enjoy. It was a fun album to make while emotive, crunchy, and oppressive.
Idlefon
COLDSTREAM
Our final vinyl release of 2021 was COLDSTREAM from Idlefon. n5MD and Idlefon have sort of missed communication in the past, and before his Tympanik works, he was briefly signed to our now-defunct sister label Enpeg. However, I am glad Hesam got back in touch as his album COLDSTREAM is stellar, gristly ambient. It echoes some of the sentiments of ILUITEQ's The Loss of Wilderness but from the human perspective of urbanization and focuses more on the loss of self in more fearful ways.
Dryft & Tangent
Acquiesce
And then there is Acquiesce! This release snowballed out of a remix trade that Tangent and I did (as Dryft). Originally Tangent's Evolutionary Cycles and From Stasis were to be released on the same day, and those that purchased both were to get a couple of remixes. As 2020 (and 2021) gave way to so many delays, we continued the remix trade and collaborated on a couple of tracks. Acquiesce was initially released as part of a Vinyl/MiniDisc bundle with From Stasis. We then offered the MiniDisc on its own and then to digital retailers on Nov. 19th. It was refreshing to collaborate with Robbert and Ralph; I think Acquiesce shows how compatible we are as a trio.