downtempo Archives - HearFeel

Bvdub – Heartless (n5MD, 2017)

Chris — Thu, 01 Aug 2024 20:13:29 +0000

I’m finding it hard to write lately. Summer has historically been a slower period for HearFeel, and as the years go by my time seems to become thinner and less available for both writing and listening and it only compounds the infrequency of my posts. And although I’m cognisant of these shifts and flows within […]

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Geotic – To Not Now, Nor To Ever, Despair (Basement’s Basement, 2022)

Chris — Mon, 06 Feb 2023 18:46:34 +0000

I like Winter light. I like its lowness, its weakness, its brevity. In its strongest moments it has a brilliance and clarity that Summer can never equal, sharp sunlight cutting through cold and clear skies; at its weakest it hardly introduces itself at all, barely penetrating the clouds to flatly illuminate the world of starkness […]

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Clarence Clarity – Dead Screen Scrolls (2020)

Chris — Sun, 03 May 2020 12:31:47 +0000

Five weeks into our lockdown and it’s hard to differentiate one day from the next. Dates have become meaningless, the entire month of April has passed with little fanfare, and whilst I have come to accept the reality of our situation, a strangeness still pervades the waking hours. At times I feel restless, at war […]

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Billow Observatory – II: Plains/Patterns (Azure Vista Records, 2017)

Chris — Mon, 12 Jun 2017 19:17:10 +0000

Summer begins 9 days from now on the Solstice, the longest day of the year, though on evenings like today you would believe that we were deep in its throes already: the woods are rich and dense with foliage; plants have cycled through their Spring blooms and are moving through to their Summer maturation; the […]

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Albums of the Decade: Manual – Until Tomorrow (Morr Music, 2001)

Chris — Mon, 31 Oct 2016 18:00:20 +0000

The debut record of Jonas Munk is one for the young, a brief snapshot of youthful energy and angst arced over 45 minutes of scuzzy, lo-fi, yet brilliantly earnest Indietronica. Unlike many of his later, more refined records that would sun themselves in languid Ambient and Downtempo with nary a care in the world, this […]

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2814 – Rain Temple (Dream Catalogue, 2016)

Chris — Wed, 19 Oct 2016 17:05:21 +0000

Originally of Vaporwave fame, 2814 prefer to craft music reminiscent of a different time, imbibing their sound with an older, 1980’s pastiche, a retro futuristic noir vibe that gives the unknown a certain seductive mystery. Rain Temple moves somewhat away from their former style, seemingly to the disappointment of some of their fans, but into a direction […]

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Julianna Barwick – Will (Dead Oceans, 2016)

Chris — Wed, 18 May 2016 17:19:43 +0000

A sense of development in an artist’s sound is an essential and expected aspect of their career; it’s difficult to maintain that which made someone popular initially across many records without becoming stale, and it seems like with some sense of reluctance Barwick is making the correct estimation that she can’t languish in the same pink […]

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Desert Island Discs #1: Tycho – Adrift

Chris — Sun, 14 Feb 2016 17:45:06 +0000

To make me write and help keep me motivated, as well as to supplement the ongoing Albums of the Decade series, I will also be covering my Desert Island Discs on the 14th of every month. These days Scott Hansen’s Tycho project is practically a household name as far as downtempo music is concerned, his woozy sun-bleached tunes […]

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Dead Melodies – Subtle Imperfections (Sparkwood Records, 2016)

Chris — Tue, 09 Feb 2016 17:30:14 +0000

Dead Melodies’ Tom Moore has started his year off nicely by following up on his debut EP from last year, Slowwave Perception. There’s been some sonic growth in the last 8 months though, and whilst there still remains a remnant hint of the original Post-Rock ambience from the EP, this time around things are a little more eerie and […]

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Albums of the Decade: Lusine – A Certain Distance (Ghostly International, 2009)

Chris — Mon, 01 Feb 2016 17:25:11 +0000

There’s always an album that we can point to and say “there, that was the moment”; at the turn of 2010, Lusine’s A Certain Distance found its way to me and changed how I consumed music thereafter. If it wasn’t for this record, I wouldn’t be writing this and HearFeel wouldn’t be here, so I owe a lot to […]

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