- A gorgeous collection of ambient techno and downtempo IDM from Jacktone's cofounder.
- Doc Sleep appears to devote most of her energy to helping other artists instead of boosting her own career. Just look at the sprawling catalogue of Jacktone, the label she runs with dabecy. She's described the platform as an incubator, a place for producers to start and grow with nurturing support. After years spent elevating up-and-coming talents, she's only now releasing her first album. Birds (in my mind anyway) is a humble but endlessly impressive collection of skewed techno and downtempo that feels like a leisurely pursuit of someone who's finally sat down to indulge themselves a little bit.
This is a record that takes its time to get going but before you even realise, it's taken hold of you. The music has some obvious touchstones—Amber-era Autechre on the repetitive, celestial funk of "Tomorrow Is Beautiful," a collaboration with Glenn Astro—but it's all arranged with care and a certain snugness. This is patient, gentle music but it's far from twee or lightweight. The loops are tight and the drums surprisingly heavy, especially on the gorgeous "C&L At The Sea," which is built around a live-sounding breakbeat that's as warm and soulful as a candlelit jazz bar.
"C&L At The Sea" also hints of old-school hip-hop, which takes up as much space on the album as techno. "Wiped Memory," featuring stuttering drums and odd, percussive grunts, is almost illbient in execution with an urgent, almost portentous bassline that fades in and out like a distant but palpable wave of anxiety. "Fog Vs. Moon," a collaboration of sorts with Doc Sleep's alter ego M. Marie, also sits uneasily amid omnious bleeps and grumbling synths.
Still, for every glum moment like that, there's a mood lifter. The wonderfully-titled "Orange Grove Nap" and its buttery dub chords never quite cohere into the Deepchord-esque track you're expecting them to. Meanwhile, the chirping birdsong and downtempo beat on "Fall Into Flowers," sounds like sleeping in on a sunny morning. It might come off anodyne if it weren't so lovingly constructed, with an economy of arrangement that makes the sweet parts sweeter and the clank of the drums more startling.
Birds (in my mind anyway) is music you feel in your chest, even when it's ambient. Like club tunes that follows you out of the venue and into your bed, the album continues to vibrate throughout the body long after the speakers turn off.
Tracklist01. Fall Into Flowers (Intro)
02. Tomorrow Is Beautiful feat. Glenn Astro
03. Flooding Meadow
04. C&L At The Sea
05. Orange Grove Nap
06. Wiped Memory
07. Fog Vs. Moon feat. M. Marie
08. Strange Sun
09. Secret Spells
10. Under HIgh Branches