NI64

Album is out now and it's great! Very intricate and detailed, as we've come to expect. Sound design is in a similar vein to Popp, but less directly clubby, and without the breathy computer voices over everything. There's a lot of different dynamics throughout - some soft pretty stuff, some very crazy noisy parts, some recognizable instrumentation, some pure digital effects. In general there's a ton going on and I'm sure it'll take a few listens to wrap my head around. I can't even begin to imagine how much work he must put into creating these tracks. But overall, highly recommended, especially if you liked the last one!

That game had such an incredible soundtrack.

I think it's kind of a misguided nostalgia thing. Everyone wants to relive that mind-blowing moment the first time you heard Drukqs, Go Plastic, etc. But the fact is that any time someone tries to recapture that feeling, it falls a bit short some way or another. It's always more exciting to hear something fresh and different, hence why the artists who originally founded the style have largely moved on. To use a video game analogy, people often laud Super Metroid and Symphony of the Night as the pinnacles of 2D gaming, so much so that indie developers have absolutely flooded the market with countless metroidvania games, and while many of them are good, some great, none are ever going to be able to recapture the feeling of playing Super Metroid for the first time. Of course this isn't an airtight explanation, and there are always exceptions to everything, but I think this Steinvord obsession falls into the same general category.

Without thinking too hard, I'd say Infolepsy & Pink+Green are my favorites. The 'Twelve' brand of Venetian Snares tracks is my favorite style of his

I'm a little bummed I missed out on these, but I did manage to snag one of the copies of Rushup Edge when that was up briefly, so I guess I shouldn't complain. Honestly owning particularly rare records kinda stresses me out haha

Showed up for me, twice, oddly enough. I wonder if the tracklist is indicating that nothing else from the mix will be on the album, or if they're just being secretive... Also just finishing up another listen and that last track after the Fracture remix is fucking killer in higher quality.

Great list. I'm playing catch up with a lot of 2019 metal, but I just listened to Planetary Clairvoyance recently and that shit is fucking insane. Reminds me a lot of Planetary Duality (Probably intentionally), which I would say is The Faceless best album, but a little more old school and thrashy. It's fantastic.

This has been sittin in my backlog for a while and I finally took the time to check it out. To echo what's already been said - holy shit, this is fucking great. I can see the self-titled-ness of it, since it sounds like a monumental statement in his music. Very into it. Also just a heads up, I went shopping around for a copy of this and it's damn near sold out everywhere, so if you were on the fence about ordering, this might be your last shot to get it at a normal price.

^Seconding Ishq but I'll add Elve - Infinte Garden and Ishvara - Magik Square of the Sun (Its all the same guy). I discovered those albums along with Substrata back in high school. At the time my favorite way to spend a weekend was to drop some acid and dive into ambient records with good headphones and all the lights off. Those ones in particular are really special and nostalgic for me because I can still distinctly remember the worlds I built in my mind as I let the sounds wash over me. Very deep and textural stuff if you feel like getting lost for a while.

Fucking great track. Really digging the vintage computer style. I think I like it more than Vortrack actually

Maybe it's about the act of the third hello. "Hello." "Hello there my friend. How are you today?" "Hello." In this moment you would be up a hello.

Would love to see an episode of Maury with Tom & Rich.

Well good thing I got paid today! Between this and the new Squarepusher the new year is looking to bust down the door with some badass tunes

Zero hesitation, ordered instantly! So excited for this, especially for whatever tracks get added over the next few months. Hopefully they don't just mean other tracks from the album; that'd be a bit of a cocktease.

I feel the same way about Lone that I do about games like Celeste (Which I also absolutely adore). They both take familiar and comforting styles and recontextualize them for a modern audience in an incredibly masterful way. In both cases, on a surface level it appears to be from the 90's - the style matches very closely, but there's a certain level of polish and refinement that could only come from a genuine love and encyclopedic knowledge of the source material. It elevates the original ideas into something that would've been impossible at the time of their inception. In short, Lone clearly loves exactly the same sounds and textures from the 90's that I do, and is a master of squeezing every last bit of delicious juice out of them. I hope he never stops making music.