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Jazzy chill with: GaetDown x Fred Paci – Nuit Torride

•July 17, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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Sultry days and nights demand a suitable accompaniment. Here’s GaetDown x Fred Paci with some lush jazzy study beats for late night chilling.

GaetDown has appeared here a few times over the last year or so. They are from France and describe themselves as “music producer and fender bender.” They’re always with a collaborator and this time it’s Canada’s Fred Paci, a trumpeter and producer.

The featured track is the just released Nuit Torride. Study beats tracks are two a penny and few are able to rise above the crowd. This is one of those tracks that oozes seemingly effortless brilliance.

Nuit Torride opens with some rain and thunder, which we could certainly do with in the UK. But that’s only a prelude to some soft chords that introduce the trumpet.

It’s the combination of the delicate trumpet and soft background chords that really makes this track.

There’s no sharp squall from the brass. It’s utterly smooth and reassuring. This gives the track a sense of exhaling breath and a reassurance that everything’s going to be ok.

The light beats tap away. The trumpet offers hope and a sense of place as the rain returns.

Utterly wonderful.

Posted in chill, study beats
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Dubstep chill with: Thomas B – Pale Yellow

•July 15, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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Some summer dubstep chill from Thomas B on Pale Yellow.

Thomas B is a producer from Tucson, Arizona. He’s got a new album just released. There’s an introspective feel to the album that mixes dubstep and spectral beats with far off laments. The album is also a coherent whole, rather than a collection of different parts.

The album is called Pale Yellow and the title track is my featured tune.

Pale Yellow is a good intro to the album, even if it comes half way through.

A wood block taps away with far off drifting bass and disembodied vocal elements.

Beats arrive in a largely Burial style dubstep vein. This keeps that hazy feel and that sense of nothing quite coming into focus.

There’s a sensation of a specific time and place for the album. And of solitary endeavour.

The spacious production allows the track to do a lot with what is otherwise very little instrumentation. The emotional impact of the warbling strings shouldn’t be overlooked.

If you have the time, take the album as a whole. 44 minutes. You won’t regret it.

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Summer chill with: LarzVegas – Behind The Shadow (9 Theory Remix)

•July 14, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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Here’s something different for your summer playlist. A track from LarzVegas that flirts with dubstep and harder genres but within a lovely and chilled framework.

LarzVegas is a Downbeat, Lo-Fi, Beats producer from Karlsruhe in Germany. His track Behind The Shadows is remixed by 9 Theory. He is LA-based singer/songwriter, beat-maker, remixer, and producer, Gabe Lehner.

Behind The Shadows (9 Theory Remix) is one of those wonderful fusion tracks. It takes elements of Ambient and a cinematic approach. These are laid onto a US dubstep template with quite a tough bass.

In other hands this could all be a bit clunky since delicacy and US dubstep are not natural bedfellows. But with the slight toning down of the bass and plenty of space allowed into the Ambient elements it all works beautifully.

A little scratching and the thud of the bass give it a head nodding quality that threatens to take off but never does. Flute like synths and tinkling chimes keep this in a warm and inviting place.

Lovely stuff.

Posted in chill, downtempo, dubstep
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Ambient Sunday Extra with: Melbana – Flâneur

•July 12, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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An extra track for Ambient Sunday from Melbana. In truth, this is a bit more downtempo than it is Ambient. But it’s still lovely.

Melbana is from Tangier, Morocco and describes himself as “Músico multinstrumentista entre Marruecos y España.”

The featured track is Flâneur from the just released album El Arte De Dar Un Paseo.

The track title is a French term coined by Charles Baudelaire in the 19th Century. It means an urban explorer who wanders aimlessly through city streets, observing people and society without a specific destination. The album title supports this theme as it is Spanish for ‘to go for a stroll’.

The track is a lovely mix of influences. There’s a bit of the Four Tet about this in the use of beats and almost folk influences.

The beats have a lovely lazy pace reminiscent of a gentle stroll. It’s all laid back but taking utter pleasure in everything around.

On the top of the beats come cherry guitar hooks and wonky strings and almost accordion sounds.

It’s a deeply organic and human sound whilst remaining perfectly electronic. Everything is warm and inviting.

The sound is totally suited for Abendspaziergang.

Posted in ambient, downtempo
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Ambient Sunday with: Ayman Kaazi, and Imagine The Sea

•July 12, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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Welcome to Ambient Sunday which is feeling a bit bleary after England’s late night success. Two tracks today from Ayman Kaazi, and Imagine The Sea.

A first time here for Ayman Kaazi who seems to be from Bangladesh but I know no more. Here’s his debut single Maddening.

Maddening is rather lovely piece for a debut. It’s sort of electronic pop, sort of ambient, and sort of experimental. And also none of these things.

Kaazi says that it was shaped by Thom Yorke and Cat Barbieri. This explains the whimsical and yet iconoclastic approach.

Maddening is a three minute journey which starts in blipping experimental territory. But the bass has a heart beat reducing quality. This allows you to sink deeply into the track.

There’s ripples of sweet synth sounds and wobbly electronics alongside. This gives it a lovely accessibility whilst retaining a delicious wonky charm. Outstanding debut.

And so another first timer here is Imagine The Sea, from Ibbenbüren, Germany. His biog says that “The creative mind behind the project is Simon Zurloh, who also invites elements of Drone, Compositional music and Post Rock influences into his carefully crafted concept releases.”

Heres his brand new single Weightless In Slow Motion. This is a gorgeously meditative piece.

Weightless In Slow Motion offers a drifting, subtly amniotic, experience. There’s a background drone that just about skirts the edges of neo classical with the seemingly endless strings.

But what lifts this is the delicate use of overlying melody that is gently picked out. It offers a lightly euphoric contrast to the background drone and helps balance out the track’s dynamics.

A track that creates a beautiful ambient self-contained world of pleasure. Recommended.

Posted in ambient
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90s Revisited with: Barbarossa Beat – Phatties Lunchbox Part Two

•July 11, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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A 90s classic gets revisited by Barbarossa Beat and Mekon who claim that it’s “Less a nostalgia project than a new creative chapter.”

The classic is Phatty’s Lunchbox from Mekon’s (John Gosling) 1994 album Welcome To Tackletown. This was a seminal big beat track and kicked some serious beats on the dance floor.

Barbarossa Beat is a new collaborative project from Dave Barbarossa (Adam & The Ants, Bow Wow Wow, Republica), placing his distinctive drumming at the centre of a monthly singles series running through into 2027. Each release pairs Dave with a different collaborator.

The just released Phattie’s Lunchbox Part Two is the debut collaboration with Mekon. This, like the original, is a groove-heavy instrumental built around live drums, movement and experimentation.

The beats here have that 90s sound but with a looser effect that harks back in places to the Burundi beat sound of the 80s.

There are fragments of precise and sometimes sleazy guitar and a few gritty samples with a claustrophobic urban feel. But it’s the beats that tumble over and over like you’re trapped in a surround sound washing machine.

A track that still sounds outside of any time and dives direct for a dance floor.

Original version

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Dusty Boom Bap double bill with: Lullabies, and JarLoFi

•July 7, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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A double bill of Boom Bap today with a new track from Lullabies and something a tad older from Jarlofi.

Three weeks ago we had a teaser track All May Come from Lullabies (Richard Lam from Phoenix) ahead of his new EP.

Well, the Steady Diet of Beats EP has just been released and to celebrate we have the opening track Reflextion.

Reflextion is a perfect encapsulation of the Lullabies sound. There’s the dusty loping beats from water bottle percussion alongside that awesome spaghetti western guitar.

Some righteous scratching gives a suitably gritty feel to the sun bleached atmosphere. It’s all narrowed eyes and ponchos. Lullabies says of the scratching that the “Scratch sound was made from a guitar pick-slide.”

A track for your next midday duel. Draw early and dig those beats, else they’ll be digging your grave.

Next we have Italy’s JarLoFi (Giulio Rosatelli) with some dusty boom bap but with a more romantic edge. A bit of ‘I’m a lover not a fighter’ vibe here.

The featured track is a never hushed voice from The Weight of Silence LP (various artists) which came out in February. This is boom bap with a jazzy edge of warmth.

A little jazz guitar flickers lazily against the gently thudding beats. A few synths amble around. The key word here is languid. Even the brass has a laidback quality, accentuated by the mix which places it in the background rather than grabbing your attention from the front.

There’s a clever mix between the sound which has a not a care in the world feel and the clever complexity of the lush arrangement.

Very much late night listening indoors with a long glass of Aperol.

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Dark techno with: Rare DM – Significant Other

•July 4, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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If you’re going out this Saturday then have some dark lubricious techno to get ready with from Rare DM.

Rare DM is singer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist Erin Hoagg. Her biog says she is “Armed with a collection of vintage analogue synthesizers and drum machines, while drawing inspiration from EBM, post-punk, minimal techno, electroclash and bloghouse.”

There’s definitely a vintage dark sound at work here. The featured track is Significant Other from the album Attention.

Significant Other is dark techno with a raw, almost harsh, sound. It makes the most of the possibilities of analogue techno with that acid infused sound and rawness of early 90s techno and EBM.

There’s nothing tender about Significant Other. This is a significant other who is a foreboding presence. Even when the beats abate everything remains dark and acidic.

The track crackles with spiteful inventiveness. Everything buzzes and powers towards the end. Quite exhilarating but exhausting.

Posted in techno
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Chilled IDM from: Ställverket – Öde hus, öde torg

•July 1, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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Back with some moody electronica comes Ställverket.

As a reminder, Ställverket is a Swedish electronic music project by Stockholm-based graphic designer and musician Jerker Josefsson. Formed during the 2020 lockdown Jerker describes the project as “a deeply personal exploration of sound, nostalgia and emotion.”

He’s returned with a new EP which came out a couple of weeks ago. This first EP was called EP and this one appropriately enough is 2.

From 2 we have Öde hus, öde torg. I think this translates as ‘Deserted house, deserted square’. Cheery stuff.

Öde hus, öde torg is a mix of lovelorn synth work and some high end beats giving that IDM edginess.

There’s a sense of lonely isolation and maybe even a ‘lost in the wilderness’ feel with the wordless choral elements accentuating everything.

The pace is slow and almost stately but it’s imbued with such emotional heft from the rich synth melody. A bit of a slow burn tear jerker.

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Ambient Sunday on a Monday with: SLITES, and Mauro de Santis

•June 29, 2026 • Leave a Comment
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It may be Monday but I’m going to extend Ambient Sunday into today with chilly tracks from SLITES and Mauro de Santis.

SLITES was here only a couple of weeks ago but let’s have another track from the Cincinnati, Ohio based artist.

The featured track is Adrift Alone Amidst from the recently released album Warm Light From Above.

Adrift Alone Amidst does what it says on the tin. There’s a single note tone that floats in a hazy drone along with some found sound. It’s all terribly amniotic.

Sounds come from far off but don’t disturb the essential calm of the track. It almost reaches for neo classical in places with almost waves of strings. But thankfully veers away at the last moment.

This is the sound of a floatation tank. The music is a vehicle for you to focus on your thoughts or to tune the world out to find some peace. Essential stuff.

Mauro de Santis is from Italy. He says “My passion for music began as a fascination with every sound, every melody. From a young age, I was fascinated by music’s ability to evoke emotions, tell stories, and create connections between people.”

Nord Circle 120 is his new release. He says it’s “an instrumental meditation on repetition.”

It opens with a dark chilly bass synth buzz. This gives it that Nordic ambient feel. But that frigidity isn’t held for long.

Rippling warm sounds arrive along with wordless vocals giving it a Mediterranean feel and a warming presence.

In some ways, with a 120bpm it’s almost not ambient and more organic house. But it maintains a soothing atmosphere, with warm tape hiss and distant field recordings from the coast.

There’s a sort of frolicking sense to the constant shifting of tones, sounds and sensations. It’s all really rather lovingly delivered and lovely to listen.

Posted in ambient
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