trip hop

Breathing Space: “WASTING”

Whether it’s the inevitable return from a much-needed vacation, spying some inspiring light post-wrestling with depression, or just the routine changing of the guard between Sunday scaries and Monday blues, the addled and anxious of us can always appreciate an extra minute or two to block everything else out and just breathe, hopefully with a vital reset on the horizon.

But even if you’re cool as a cucumber all year round, we can’t recommend Breathing Space enough. Comprised of Maura Dooley and Emi Salinas, this Austin-via-Houston two-piece has been parsing out the finest elements of dreamy lo-fi for more than half a decade now. Breathing Space was a godsend when they first hit streaming just before the pandemic, and their modern, alternative meditations quickly became an essential part of our COVID routine thanks to a fairly routine single release schedule. And while the duo’s maintained that regimen, they’ve continued to push the boundaries of their sonics. Chiefly in terms of how upbeat can you turn it up with disco-funk elements until you kill the chill (think August’s “DREAMING’S EASY” and Fall 2022’s “GOT IT BAD”) and how mellow can you make things before it’s just plain bleak?

Especially with the latter, that line remains to be drawn in the sand. However, last Friday Breathing Space did blow us away with what may be their slickest production to date, “WASTING”. A relatively simple composition (characterized by a brief runtime, repeated lyrics, and barely more than a pair of chords to alternate between), this intersection of trip hop and alt-R&B expands a surprising amount on behalf of careful vocal layering, sultry saxophone, sneaky sampling, and beautiful bass work.

Lyrically? If you’ve been drooping on a throne of complacency and medication, these two queens may just put that reign on a platter and help you rejoice at the beheading of any bad habits or lingering shortcomings.

Damascan Daydreams: “People” (prod. Oddmanrush)

Making memorable trip-hop’s not just a matter of slowing down breakbeats, and swapping out rap verses with some reggae-dub bass and exotic-sounding samples. No it’s a tricky tightrope that walks the thin line between sneaky and seductive, mellow and bangin’, and of course, hip-hop and psychedelia. And in our opinion, the tunes with women singers have shown a lot stronger of staying power.

In an ideal example of the “two heads are better than one” approach, dark dream pop singer-songwriter Damascan Daydreams recently teamed up with post-industrial multi-instrumentalist-producer Oddmanrush to create a sprawling, seventeen-minute exploration of that iconic ’90s style. Appropriately titled Archangel, these four originals capture that fall-from-grace vulnerability with a post-pearly gates perspective and ethereal-meets-sinister atmosphere.

In other words, it’s a awesome experience of flawed humanity best experienced front-to-back, or better yet, on-stage and in-person. So catch the pair performing later this fall on November 10th at Hotel Vegas and again on November 15th at DadaLab. And if you’re feeling a little gloomy going back into the workweek, let Archangel‘s sophomore song “People” put you in comparable, Portishead-esque spirits. A real achievement of minimalism, this downtempo trip-trop treat touts simple synth chord progressions, bare bones MIDI drum programming, and vocals that swerve between reverb-enriched and almost completely dry.

Lando the Nomad: “The Healing In You” (feat. Shiela)

If you kept up with Austin soul-funk project Resonant Frequency in their heyday then you’re already somewhat aware of how much talent comes from multi-instrumentalist Landon Reichle. Even then you might’ve missed wind of Reichle’s newfound producer pet project, Lando the Nomad, which finds the genre-traveler exploring those electro-alternative realms made popular in the mid-’90s/early-’00s: trip-hop and R&B.

Lando the Nomad’s set a clear path for 2021, having already released the first half of a two-part collaborative EP, whose latter portion features hip-hop vocalist Roof. The Healing In You, however, features the masterful singing of Shiela, thereby elevating Lando’s already-amazing instrumentals into the echelon of Massive Attack and Portishead, especially on the record’s title track.

Click Music: “Surprises”

Though he’s originally from Chicago, multi-instrumentalist David Click has decidedly snapped into place here in Austin. As a publisher, producer, engineer, and of course, singer-songwriter, Click founded his recording studio The Oven not too long ago and has fittingly recorded his material as Click Music there.

Yesterday Click Music commenced his 2021 with a bittersweet title, Cheated on Me, a three-song EP that expands out from the sound of Click’s typical discography to incorporate trip-hop, UK two-step, and pop-R&B. It seems like no matter what genre you throw at him, Click continues to navigate his affectionate arrangements with ease and incite ecstasy in listeners, statements that at this point shouldn’t come too much as, “Surprises”.