ESKMO – HYPERCOLOR (Ancestor)

 

San Francisco’s Eskmo, a.k.a. Welder (Brendan Angelides), hits us with mind-melting sound design and future style riddims on his new Hypercolor release. This April release EP highlights the reason why I’m always so drawn to Eskmo’s productions: they are musically layered like an abacus, absolutely psychedelic, and reflect a special place in the bass world where intense composition, the mind, and ball-smashing groove do a dance together. His fresh off collaborations have shattered dance floor and dubstep boundaries, such as his work on Speaker’s Corner with DJ Quest, and this third release on his Ancestor label takes it even further. Lush, haunting, and oozing boom-blap-beats completely saturate the listener in hi-fi audio, while meticulous, foley-inspired sound design forms polyrhythms within the tracks.

The moment the title track starts, it strikes you as being particularly close and teases you into thinking a west coast lazer excursion will happen. But alas, so much more ensues as arpeggiated synths tickle the upper register and keys tell a tale of many memories coming through on these tunes – to me at least.

San Francisco hits you with a definite SF bounce; sub bubbler and pan/water sounds fly around the spectrum, reminiscent of Stockhausen and Walkmen. With his unique style, Eskmo consistently bends the synthesizers and the sounds together in a symbiotic and uplifting harmonic shuffle that carries seamlessly throughout the release with great emotion. I Dream I’m Flying highlights the two-step inspired version of this very specialized acidic flavor that Eskmo brings up, and shows how he always takes dance music and turns it into beautiful composition.

Groundbreaking work from the west coast’s most thoughtful bass producer.