Tim Hecker and Daniel Lopatin, Instrumental Tourist
Featured Album
A shining example of two Type B personalities meeting each other halfway
In case you were wondering, SSTUDIOS is not a long-overdue compilation of chillwave Phil Collins covers. Like a jazz improv label with customized synths and samplers in place of brass parts and brushed drums, the Software/Mexican Summer imprint is actually a duet-driven exploration of experimental and electronic music, as curated by Daniel Lopatin (Oneohtrix Point Never) and his part-time production partner Joel Ford (Airbird, Ford & Lopatin). And while that may sound as exciting as the purely academic pages of Wire magazine – the parts that make us feel like we’re back in a philosophy class about Lacan and David Lynch – Lopatin’s inaugural entry with Tim Hecker is seamless to the point of sounding like an entirely new entity. It’s a dizzying procession of extraterrestrial drone tones, wobbly radio waves, teeth-gnashing white noise and pure ambient moods that work better than Ambien ever did. A shining example of two Type B personalities meeting each other halfway, and arriving at something that’s greater than the sum of their parts.
