LATECRATES

On Lucidflow, 'Mind Craft' is Klartraum's ten-track full-length, patient, dark, one that just sits there and lets you come to it. It's not an album that grabs you by the collar. It's the one that's already in the room when you get home, already comfortable with the silence.

Eason did most of the actual listening on this one. His read: the opener's fine, there's a real turn around the five-minute mark, it doesn't just ride the loop out, but 'Triple Split' is the one that actually held him, way more interesting than whatever the presumed single is. There's always a single, apparently, whichever one they'd play you first at a party, his bet is 'The Modem'. That's Eason's read, not mine, I didn't do the close listening here.

He also flags a vocal chop, real tiny, buried under the low end, that he swears turns up on a Klartraum release from years back, their signature at this point, though he'll hedge on exactly how many years, could be five, could be eight. Not a confirmed fact, just his ear.

My own favorite bit is the bass on 'Black Orchid'. That low end just moves, dipping instead of sitting on one note the whole track. Eason's take: written for the key, not just pushed loud. That's his read again, not mine, I can't hear that stuff the way he does, but I trust him on it.

Where does it live? Not an opener, this is 4am comedown territory, everyone still kind of awake, nobody really talking anymore, Eason's placement. I'd put it a little earlier myself: the sitting-in-the-dark-with-a-drink hour. Either way, it just sits there and lets you.

Ten tracks, no filler that jumps out, no big single doing the heavy lifting, no apology. Just Klartraum being Klartraum, patient as ever, and Lucidflow giving it the room to breathe.

Rezident’s ‘Feeling Fades’ record is a strange one because it doesn’t feel like it’s trying to impress you. The whole thing moves at its own pace, and for the first few tracks you’re not really sure where it’s going. Then track eight arrives, and it’s the one where the whole thing finally opens up. Everything before it is doing a slow lean into it, and then it just lets go for like ninety seconds and pulls back again.

The track is called ‘Bristol’ and it’s the only moment on the record that feels like it was built for a room full of people. The rest of the album is more headphone music, or early morning listening, but this one has a different kind of pulse. It’s not a big drop, not a festival moment, but there’s a weight to it. The drums have a bit more push, the bassline locks in a little deeper, and the pads start to swell in a way that feels like the sky is clearing.

It also feels like a bit of a statement for where Anjunadeep is heading. The label used to mean one very specific sound, then it drifted for a couple years into whatever, now it feels like it’s snapping back toward the original thing. This one fits that snap back. It’s warm, melodic, a little melancholy, but still functional. It’s the kind of track you could imagine closing a set at a festival as the sun is coming up, or opening one in a dark room where everyone’s just getting into it.

There’s a reason it’s sitting at track eight. You have to earn it. And you do.

Taylan’s ‘Last October’ is out now on Fractal Noise Records, and it’s one of those records that feels like it’s quietly telling you something, even while it’s moving your body.

Let me talk about where it actually sits. It’s not a peak-time banger, and it’s not a deep ambient drift. It’s that pocket in between, where the floor is still full but people are starting to move a little slower, with more intention. That’s where this track lives. And it’s got that turn about two thirds in that feels like the record changing its mind about what it wants to be. The drums drop back, something else opens up, and the whole thing tilts sideways for a second before it locks back in. It’s that moment that makes you look up and notice where you actually are.

This is going in the comedown slot, I think. Not full comedown, but more like the last stretch before that, when people are still moving but slower, and the room has that heavy, warm feeling. It fits there perfectly.

On the flip, ‘Better Off Alone’ does its own thing. The synth line in the back half is doing real work, defying the usual pattern where the second track just repeats the first. It’s a proper two-sided single, and that’s becoming rarer than it should be.

Lunar Plane, ‘I Feel For You’, on MoBlack Records, a single that makes its point through restraint rather than volume.

It opens on a low-slung, four-to-the-floor pulse, the kind that doesn’t ask for attention but holds it anyway. The vocal chop enters almost as a ghost, a phrase that repeats and repeats, never begging to be the centre of the record. It sits low in the mix, understated, while the percussion locks into a rolling, hypnotic groove. There are no dramatic drops, no stadium-sized builds, just a patient, hypnotic push that feels like it knows exactly where it is going.

That sense of knowing is the record’s real strength. It could easily be a loop that overstays its welcome, but Lunar Plane keeps every element in its right place, shifting textures subtly and letting the groove breathe. The result feels less like a dance track and more like a slow burn, the kind of thing that sounds better the longer you let it run. There is a purity to it, something almost minimal in the best sense, an idea executed with real discipline. It feels like an Apple record, not the computer, the label, the kind of clean, considered design that doesn't need to shout.

MoBlack Records has built its name on precisely this kind of release, music that is deep, functional and full of feeling. With ‘I Feel For You’, Lunar Plane fits right in, delivering a record that is as confident as it is quiet. It's not gonna change your life, it's just a nice small one.

Lost Desert brings a four-track package entitled ‘Saudade’ to All Day I Dream, out February 14, 2025, and it captures the imprint’s organic, melodic sound.

Title track ‘Saudade’ is solid, a warm and rolling journey with plucked strings and airy pads. But the real highlight for me is the closing cut, ‘Dunes Of Alula’, its percussive elements in the second half have a distinct character, not just a loop that gets progressively quieter. There’s a subtle textural shift that rewards attentive listening.

‘Dear To Me’ is one I’d skip if I had to pick. It lands in that classic track-two spot, it’s just kind of there, a placeholder rather than a destination.

'When Sun Rises (Volen Sentir Extended Remix)' rounds out the tracklist, decent enough for mixing but not the reason to come back.