Anthony Naples + DJ Python - Air Texture VIII

  • The ambient compilation series creeps closer to techno with two of its most high-profile curators yet, offering plenty of new artists to discover.
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  • The Air Texture series maps the liminal spaces of dance music. Each compilation is assembled by two high-profile curators, who are given the conditions that all tracks must be unreleased, and none would be played during peak time in a DJ set. Originally that meant ambient music, but as the series has expanded and swept up more and more styles in its wake—including assembling Place compilations to survey hubs like Vancouver and Nairobi—Air Texture has rubbed up against techno before arriving, somewhat inevitably, at Anthony Naples and DJ Python. The Queens residents (and former roommates) are a great fit for the series. Both are central to the New York scene and capable of both high-energy DJ sets and sedate, downtempo records. This is one of the least sedate and most energetic installments in the series, and though Huerco S.'s nine-minute ambient dub monster "Latautii" acts as the drumless calm at the eye of the storm, there's rarely a moment in search of a beat. Four-on-the-floor rhythms are few and far-between, and mostly clustered towards the record's first third—more often, we're hearing irregular kick drums and snares that splinter as they crack. It's still pretty far from peak time, but it feels more like a party than a Pure Moods compilation. In a statement accompanying the compilation, both producers pay tribute to Miami, where Naples was born and where DJ Python, real name Brian Piñeyro, spent time absorbing the reggaeton and dancehall rhythms that form the spine of his work. But the most well-represented city is New York, with many tracks drawn from their circle of friends. Downstairs J represents Naples' Incienso label with the skeletal trip-hop construction "1000 dumplings," Brooklyn's Aurora Halal teams up with DJ G for brooding early highlight "Off The Top" and Dexo appears as Mr. Curtains with the vexing "Hop," whose abrasive synth lead gnashes frantically as the beat lopes away in the distance. Mr. Curtains is such a little-used moniker that one might suspect it was a sly pseudonym for one of the selectors without an exhaustive Internet search. So is Charles Noel's Vertical Silence moniker, responsible for the lumbering late-album behemoth "Antonyms For Us." For that matter no one really knows who DJ Trystero is except that he's from Japan. With so many obscure names, Air Texture VIII offers a great Discogs rabbit hole for the listener to go down, and there's an exciting sense that these two well-connected DJs are sharing their discoveries with us before a lot of other people know about them. Naples and Piñeyro deliver plenty of the gems Air Texture boss James Healy must have anticipated when tapping these two well-connected artists, but it can all feel a little bleary when listened to in sequence. This music isn't quite ambient, but it doesn't quite bang either, hovering in a limbo where you might find yourself invariably aware of it but not totally paying close attention. The occasional exceptions—running the gamut from DINA's heart attack-frantic "Skin Shed" to the amoebic drift of Trystero's "Palisades"—only make the listening experience more rocky. It's the kind of thing you'll likely go back to when remembering where you discovered one of your favorite artists.
  • Tracklist
      01. Parris - springtime flows in three ways 02. Aurora Halal & DJ G. - Off The Top 03. Mr. Curtains - Hop 04. Waon P - GHK 05. DINA - Skin Shed 06. Anthony Naples & DJ Python - Entouré 07. Organ Tapes - 14K 21 08. James Bangura - Per Ounce 09. Huerco S - Latautii 10. Bitter Babe & Nick León - Ecotone 11. rrao - Zindagi.wav 12. Beta Librae - Treble Stitch 13. DJ Trystero - Palisade 14. downstairs J - 1000 dumplings 15. Anthony Naples & DJ Python - Final Speaking 16. Meitei - Sankai (Meitei Remix) 17. Vertical Silence - Antonyms For Us 18. 5AM - Years
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