Sd-1

Recently, many artists have been diving into sonic and visual aesthetics inspired by the recent online boom of ambient-clouded derivations of trance, hip-hop, electronic, pop, and more. There's no accurate umbrella term for this scene; internet forum RateYourMusic coined adjacent artists as "Deconstructed Club" or "Epic College", and Spotify internally brands it as "New Isolationism." Regardless of the name, most listeners can peg the sound inching away from its influences and moving closer and closer to its cloudy & ambient aspirations. Toronto-based producer Louke Man seems to successfully walk the line between these two sonic points with his latest album, Sd-1.

Sd-1 is a collage of ambient, house, and electronic that doesn't blend to the point where each sound is indistinguishable, but each sound stands strong by itself and simultaneously meshes with each other. Vocal samples are chopped inherently club-y but wick onto the rest of the track in a comforting warm ambience. There's an inherent sense of pacing that doesn't make the project feel like it's being held in one place for too long. The 27-minute runtime feels like it wraps onto the listener, and depending on what you want it to be, it can feel like you're trapped in a moment for a century or just pass you by.