The current wave of experimental grime producers, pushing the genre's ambient, more futuristic sounds, seems to be gathering more and more pace every day. Yamaneko, a relatively new name in that world, has just thrown his hat into the ring with Pixel Wave Embrace, an album that Mumdance has described as "one of my favourite albums of 2014." Logos and Mr. Mitch have also registered their approval.
Pixel Wave Embrace is, for all its ambient minimalism and luscious synth washes, an unexpectedly playful and upbeat album. Amid the album's more subdued moments, Yamaneko throws in video game and gunshot grime samples to break the tense atmosphere. The remarkable thing about Pixel Wave Embrace isn't its leftfield take on grime, rather it's the expansive universe that Yamaneko has created. Not only is this world explored on the album, but he also created prequel and sequel mixes as well as 'otherworld' mixes for each track on the album.
The LP has been made available for streaming (see below) ahead of its release later this week on Local Action. Despite not even being released yet, the cassette version of the album has already sold out, so you'll have to be super quick off the mark to get a physical version.
[via Dazed]
