Bendik Giske
Bendik Giske

Reflecting on great leaders and great bands and what makes them essential; there is not too much more that On-Ly has considered for Wonderlust. Distinct in that it inaugurates his first release with a band. The album takes on a facilitating role in the style of great psychedelic albums as one finds themselves at the whimsy of through-composed pilgrimages to soft, heartfelt song and back to sun-soaked heights woven with engaging arrangement, a one-of-a-kind production style and an incredible pedigree of musicianship.All tracks composed and arranged by Joshua Smeltink.

boomkat: ...Rounding up cuts from her self-released tapes, harder-eared listeners will be in their element with Atnif’s brace of unforgivingly noisy and clenched monotone grooves, all inspired by the brutalist architecture of her home country, and each laced with a sliver of pathos that rescues them from the abyss.

For the next Blue Hour Music chapter, a special friend of the label’s family is stepping in. Hailing from the city of Delft, Dutch composer Spekki Webu delivers ‘Tenzan’, a forceful 4-track EP which might be the producer’s most ambitious project to date. Spawned from a place of personal reflection, Tenzan is the result of the ongoing cycle of life that has been influencing Webu since his early years. This philosophy was heightened after a fascination for mountains and a series of dreams about enlightenment on top of a sacred hill. These dreams later became reality after witnessing a ‘Tenzan’ (translated as ‘heavenly mountain’) during a trip in the Japanese wilderness. The cycle of life as represented by the heavenly mountain formed the spiritual direction to complete the narrative for this long-running Blue Hour project - as the leaves fell into place a new cycle began. Aligned in force and vigor, the A-side takes off with ‘Okada’, a grooving tension builder led by ominous melodies that drift off into the depths of the forests. Entering a state of empyrean elevation, ‘Horizon’ is a dub-induced peak-time roller of monumental grandeur. On the B side, the gears shift as ‘Solaris’ unveils a contemporary reinterpretation of 90s acid trance, fusing psyche-warping panned drones and minimalistic drum programming set to make blood pressures rise. Coming full circle, ‘Eion’ delivers euphoric salvation with a pulsating bassline guided by dreamy, repetitive soundscapes that reach for atmospheric heights. Vertigo-induced and wisdom-fueled, Spekki Webu opens the portal to the next cycle of sonic exploration marking the 25th release on Blue Hour Music.

“Featuring appearances from: Special Guest DJ, Ben Bondy, Hysterical Love Project and some other people we can't name for legal reasons"The holographic swarm that is Downstairs People returns with their latest collection of subconscious songwriting. Simply titled ‘DSP’, Downstairs People’s sophomore album expands on their surreal horoscope of Top 40 musings, with nine works that explore the altered states of pop.DSP reimagines the FM radio spectrum with distorted hooks, sour candy production and cascading vocal harmonies with no lyrics. Sung to us in an unknown language, it’s an archive of warped transmissions from beyond our solar system, conveniently recorded and presented as a flat, spinning monolith.A brief history of having no time, and an ode to the subversive power of pop music.