Each month, writer, musician, and DJ Ted Davis wanders through the dreamlike outskirts of Bandcamp. Embracing a fluid, forward-thinking approach to ambient, anything deemed worthy of the genre tag is considered fair game for this column. Here are albums that reimagine Americana guitar, introduce an exciting new label, pay tribute to a television score, and more.
. 00:10 / 00:58 By all indications, expecting a blissful album from Pavel Milyakov seems like a bit of a stretch. The Berlin-based producer and DJ came up releasing zippy dance records under the alias Buttechno; his eponymous material is more stoney and withdrawn, but even at its most ethereal, Milyakov’s output is better suited to basement club settings than optimistic decompression. But on his new collaborative album with UK visual artist and book publisher Lucas Dupuy, Milyakov pays homage to the sound of New Age at the turn of the century. These six sprawling pieces are built on sherbet-soft pads, floaty leads, and field recordings Milyakov captured in Japan, conjuring a thin, balmy haze. It’s perfect for discombobulating mental journeys in warm, tripped-out spaces.
The enigmatic Berlin artist Shy has worn a lot of hats since he first materialized on the scene—from mastering engineer to graphic designer to founder of the label 3XL. One of his most notable outlets is the music he makes as Special Guest DJ, which spans techno, dub, and ambient. His latest Bandcamp offering, superbath (2024 remaster), is the polished version of a previous YouTube upload. It lands at the gentlest end of the Special Guest DJ spectrum, stretching a misty drone and elusive melodies over 24 minutes. Shy is near the heart of a crew that orbits the otherworldly Berlin listening bar kwia, and superbath is enough to make me fantasize about spending a dissociative night in that cotton-y venue
Collerette began as a radio program on LYL Radio hosted by Yannis Arnouil who spins under the alias DJ Chou Chou. Arnouil has expanded Collerette into a record label, inaugurating it with the compilation les heures claires. The collection began life as a love letter to ‘00s indietronica, and it wears a delicate cutesiness on its sleeve. Contributors were asked to craft cuts that sound like they emerged from a treasure chest full of memories. Mysterious producers, including Lilic, Teu, Bug bus piano, and Purelink member Ben Paulson (aka kindtree), deliver burbling, lullaby-like compositions. It’s a promising statement of intent from Collerette, and an endearingly soft-lit addition to the booming glitch landscape.
The label enmossed was launched in a forest on the United States’s East Coast, but it has a knack for attracting arty international talent—names like Jake Muir and Tetsuya Nakayama. Enmossed is one of the darkest labels I follow on this site, consistently platforming musique concrète and sludge. One of its first releases for the year is a split from Finland’s Kati Roover and J. Koho. Across a pair of hefty compositions, found sound samples skirt between placidity and static chaos. Split manages to be clattering and uneasy, without ever teetering into ugliness.
So far, the releases on INDEX:Records—from artists like Gi Gi, XENIA REAPER, Ike Zwanikken, and others—have been crinkly and candlelit. The Glasgow label’s latest pushes into comparably pummeling terrain. Games’s Quarter Tone Sub toys with choppy bass, reminiscent of trap from the 2010s. Translucent, broken-beat drums pound above hovering voices, glued together by dramatic compression. In spite of its abrupt nature, Quarter Tone Sub possesses a glassiness that makes me imagine a Black Dice track frozen beneath a thick sheet of ice.
Every five years, Loraine James celebrates the start of a new calendar by dropping an EP. Continuing the tradition she started in 2015 and continued in 2020, New Year’s Substitution 3 unites four hastily finished songs rooted in partnership. Beloved artists ML Buch, Coby Sey, KMRU, and KAVARI breathe emotion into James’s atmospheric production, lithe grooves, and baroque songwriting. The fanfare surrounding New Year’s Substitution 3 may be sparse, but this crew of heavyweights brought their A-game.
M Wagner debuted as a solo artist last spring, serving up a mixture of lo-fi house, minimal techno, and noise. It comes as little surprise that the Brooklyn-based producer, Silver Liz guitarist, and Extremely Pure label co-founder would dabble in ambient; his previous output has displayed a kind of serrated dreaminess. Wagner kicked off the year with a two-movement composition which probes his avant-garde sensibilities. Built on chaotic, manipulated field recordings and shoegaze-y distortion, the 11-minute release is searing and ruminative. “Sirendaze”/”July 2020” feels like processing nostalgia through the lens of a searing headache.
PJS serve up drones that evoke sunlight and shadows bouncing off a clearing of pine trees. The British Columbia-based duo of Patrick Dique and Jordan Christoff have settled into an unabashedly psychedelic lane, releasing albums on labels like Global Pattern, Ume Records, and Kudatah. Their latest, Spirals, arrives via Cosmic Winnetou, and captures PJS at their most wooly and contemplative. The record is centered on heavenly drones, which rarely evolve past a gentle hum. Spirals calls to mind a zoomed in glimpse at an intricately patterned tapestry.
In recent years, the New York City label Island House Recordings has become a home for organic-yet-heady experimentation. The imprint’s latest is from Ultisol, and it sits nicely alongside albums from Seawind Of Battery, ragenap, and tarotplane. Precession of the Equinox marks the official debut of Georgia-based artist Daniel Lamb, who puts a withdrawn spin on Americana and post-rock. A host of collaborators—including Dan English, Dale Eisinger, and Megan Searl—breathe life into Lamb’s earthy arrangements. The end result seems forged from tendrils of incense smoke, putting an updated spin on American instrumental folk.
. 00:10 / 00:58 With each new effort, the London label AD 93 becomes more and more unpredictable. 2024 found Nic Tasker’s imprint exploring eclectic strains of club, trip hop, post-rock, and beyond. AD 93 has kicked off 2025 with a cassette-only release from Dylan Henner, consisting of instrumental covers of songs from the soundtrack to the X-Files. Only one piece is available in full on Bandcamp, but it hints at a celestial album that stays true to Henner’s trademark foggy sonics.
