Euglossine
Sharp Time

ORANGE MILK RECORDS: ...Drop Shadow is the new album from New Zealand native Luke Rowell, and his first release under the Eyeliner name since 2015’s Buy Now (Beer on the Rug). The album is filled with highly composed MIDI pop music that covers a range of mood and emotion, from the uplifting Vince DiCola-esque opener to the beautiful digital vocal “ahh”s that merge into crashing waves at the end of “Keep Calm”. Rowell is using the language of instrumental dance and pop to express multiple themes, the first being personal loss and caring for a sick loved one, as reflected on the suite of songs from “Contact” to “Carry On”. At the albums center these songs form a sort of emotional core that also reframe lighter pieces like “Coffee News” as mini respites along the way.Drop Shadow also explores Rowell’s fascination with American and Japanese music culture and their many intersections, most evident to me on the upbeat “Drop Shadow” which utilizes the Korg Wavestatoion and M1 VST (which is the highest selling synth of all time in its hardware form) and lands somewhere between early house music, a Madonna instrumental, and something from a Nintendo 64 soundtrack.If the previous Eyeliner album LARP of Luxury can be seen as a sunrise record and BUY NOW as night time music, Drop Shadow goes from morning to night and back again. Songs like “Reverie” can feel bright and head-nodding on first listen, only to shift into a hopeful melancholy the second time through.

ORANGE MILK RECORDS: ...Maya’mi is the third release and first LP on Orange Milk from Alex Colombo’s Diamond Soul project. The album continues to experiment with hyper-abstracted electronics and collage aesthetics, which Colombo refers to as ‘mixed media’ music. Even though samples are used sparingly on the album, it retains a sense of micro genres and varied sources colliding on a moment to moment basis, a feel that I alway find comparable to fellow Orange Milk artists Koeosaeme, toiret status, and DJWWWW.

ORANGE MILK RECORDS:...Nick Storring's eighth album (and third release for Orange Milk Records) takes the one-person-orchestra approach for which he is acclaimed and translates it to a single instrument: the piano. Recorded on everything from the innards of an old upright piano to a Disklavier (a computer-controlled acoustic piano) housed at Yamaha's Toronto offices, and using playing techniques that span conventional to idiosyncratic, Storring conjures a vast and vivid colour palette. Music from 'Wéi 成为' was composed for the choreography of his frequent collaborator, Yvonne Ng and began its life in a residency at the Banff Centre in December 2017. Just like the unique movement vocabulary found in Ng's quintet dance Wéi 成为, Storring's copiously layered score moves fluidly between tender lyrical phrases and driving interlocking figures, and from thick textural swarms to supple transparency.

ORANGE MILK RECORDS: ... Annulus is Ryu Yoshizawa’s third release on Orange Milk as Koeosaeme. His 2019 LP Obanikeshi was a barrage of high resolution abstract compositions, and Annulus picks up from there, refining the style and adding an extra layer of inspiration from the Southeast Asian folk music of Burma, Thailand, China, etc. He inserts music concrete with silky repetition, making you feel as if you are walking through parts of Asia, contemplating experimental music. Annulus is peaceful, melodic, atonal, and flows together as one big piece. Part 1 of the record is concrete music, and Part 2 is described as abstract music. It is distinctly Japanese despite other western influences like Steve Reich and Jon Hassell; music meant for a documentary that will be made in the distant future. Annulus features collaborations with Hidekazu Sakamoto, Seth Graham, and LXV.Koeosaeme is Ryu Yoshizawa. From 2004, he has been a member of the sound artists group “OFFICE INTENZIO” under Yellow Magic Orchestra’s Yukihiro Takahashi. In addition, he is in charge of live event backup support and recordings for Ryuichi Sakamoto, Yukihiro Takahashi, Kyoka and many others. He also produces music commercially for Lotte and Square Enix.

ORANGE MILK RECORDS: ...Japan’s Nobuyuki Sakuma is a prolific artist; formerly of the Jesse Ruins duo on the Captured Tracks label, he now shifts time between his electronic music project CVN, curating the mix series Grey Matter Archives, and chief editor duties at Avyss Magazine. “I.C.” will be his second album for Orange Milk as CVN, and it is an eclectic hybrid of beat music and abstract electronics. There is a searching quality in his music, with leaps in variation from track to track that are meant to elicit the mutating feelings of walking through Tokyo.The first track 成分 Seibun is a calm pop song featuring Japanese vocalist NTsKi, and feels like an initial encounter with nocturnal cityscapes. As the album progresses a stranger Japanese electronic music culture begins to emerge, referencing artists like good friend Foodman and label partner Koeosaeme with irreverent assertions of anti-genre music making. Tracks like “Snippets of Heaven” are reminiscent of music on the labels PAN or Halcyon Veil, cryptic and sparse with random industrial beats and scraping metal. “舌下 (Karaoke)” is a more forlorn piece with straightforward rhythm and deeply effecting use of repetition. Sakuma states that he lets mood dominate his track making and does not care if this transitioning emotion fits into a cohesive style. The skill of harnessing the random nature of each tracks aesthetic is impressive, resulting in an exciting record that faithfully documents its creators place and time.