OTAD#65 - Variant

Yesterday as I was researching Ex-Terrestrial I got bamboozled hard, we truly live in a small world… As I was going through Temples’s catalog, the label he runs and where he released Paraworld and re-released his most famous Euphorbia, and scrolled down to the very bottom of the page to get a glimpse of the first releases (I always check the first release of a record label, usually good indicator of the art direction); I was flabbergasted to see Variant - Hyperbaric Chamber, but why you may ask?

The year is 2015; Guillaume is living his honeymoon with electronic music, and in particular ambient music. He scouts the interwebs, in particular the29nov channels, for some obscure ambient techno tracks to sooth his dire need for bleak soundscapes, an itch that needs constant scratching, borderline withdrawal syndrome. In his quest, he meets hurfyd’s channel, the legendary YouTube digger with his iconic profile pic, the dog from Adventure Time. Blazed out of his mind one day, he clicks on “Hyperbaric Chamber”, title track from the EP.

Ambient techno from outer space, not sure how influenced by the video clip I may be, but this track does makes me feel like I am outside of my spaceship, in my space suit, floating around, doing some repair work in a zero-pressure environment. Its name and vibe had a strong influence on me; so much so that my first ever recorded DJ set was called Isobaric, uploaded on the 9th of May 2015, close to 6 years ago hot damn I am getting old.

Note that Alpine, from the same EP, is definitely worth a listen too. Definitely rocking the same vibe, empty, low-pressure, highly hostile environments. Played this one quite a few times in the barn in Normandy as an opener. Loved it as intro because it started ever so quietly then came the dankest of kicks near 03:00, and you were good to go to switch towards more dance-focused yet hypnotizing loops.

Hope you enjoyed this snapshot of ambient techno from 2015, the golden era of this genre! Peace out.