The excellent Field label embarks on a new mini trilogy of EPs that will "present a magical journey through modern-day trance." First up in the series is Artefakt with their three track effort The Final Theory. Dutch producers Robin Koek and Nick Lapien make up Artefakt, and between them they excel at moody voodoo music on labels like Delsin. They open this latest EP with the title track, a deep, spacious house roller with subtle pads and gentle acid that perform slow motion acrobatics for nearly ten minutes. It is suspensory, dreamy music that works on the head as well as the heel. Moving Horizon is then less doleful and introspective but just as deep, with sweeping pads add a sense of scale, busy drums bring the dynamism and icy percussive sounds adding a sense of urgency. Last but not least, Solaris is a fatter, more physical groove with claps and gloopy bass, acid flashes and trancey pads all fleshing out a lush and deep electro workout. This is heavenly stuff that cannot fail to get inside your head and heart.
Known and admired for its rich and moody ambient and techno output, Field Records is proudly presenting a brand new LP from IORI. His mesmerizing ambient excursions come under the title of Cold Radiance, and the album features eight tracks that suck you right into his world. Each track here is a long and absorbing affair that slowly unfolds and pulls you right into its grainy core. There are dark, texturally rich tracks that are full of menace as well as more heavenly, suspensory and angelic ambient offerings.
Field Records looks to L'estasi Dell'oro (Christopher Ernst, aka Penalune) for a new three-track EP for sound systems that once again takes us down the rabbit hole. Following on from his previous 'I Look Upon Nature While I Live in a Steel City' album in 2015, this is another masterfully drawn out and engaging affair. "Either to please or to educate" is the intended purpose of this EP release, utilizing guitar, tabla, and other electronic and acoustic instruments. The incessant movement of the metronomic tremors felt underneath our plains lay the rhythm. The threadbare dialogue we use to communicate frays slightly further. These spirals are given an explicit voice through Leader Annabelle Kuwe's dispassioned public address to the remaining world at the Great Meeting of 2166, as recounted by Sadie LaPierre on closer 'Achieve Ignition'.
Field Records continues to focus on its first run of solo artists EPs with four tracks from UK pair Szare. Before now this Frozen Border and Horizontal Ground duo has excelled in crafting cavernous bass chambers and off beat rhythms with ease - just as they do here. Riding up and down, skipping left and right and swelling with a sense of post apocalyptic optimism as it goes. This EP is full of fresh ideas, fulsome production and a dark energy that makes it fit perfectly on the most recent end of the hardcore continuum.