hello ladies and germs. euth is back with another weekly download for your discerning musical palette. little extra fuel for soaking up the last drops of summer.

gi gi - in lieu 

In Lieu | Gi Gi

10 track album

let's start with a real gem. i'm not going to pretend i have any context for gi gi, or this album. seems to be a guy from texas who has been producing for a little while. the record is incredible, sitting comfortably among other downtempo chill but with a unique approach. the sounds don't behave in exactly the way you'd expect, the rhythms and timbres poking out and flowing in unexpected ways. it's soft and warm, kind of squishy. one of my favorite kinds of records. you can put it on in just about any situation and it'll be recognizable enough to put the listeners at ease but there's a creeping strangeness that makes itself known as the record goes on. just wonderful, going right into heavy rotation. 

topdown dialectic - false lp a

False AraliaFalse LP A - Topdown Dialectic, by Topdown Dialectic

i was trying to get around talking about this one but it's just undeniable. across 16 tracks, each exactly five minutes long, topdown dialectic lures you into a chamber of (forgive me) idm tinged ambient dub. now these days i mostly use idm derogatorily, but its contours are employed well here; its sharp edges and insistent quirks drowned in a sweltering cavern, softened and squished, struggling to remain intact, to make its form known through the murk. it might take a minute to sink into this one, and i might even advise skipping the first track to get into the haze a little quicker. each track being the same length somehow conjures the sensation of exploring a series of rooms, in this case, caverns deep in some underground maze, each uniquely equipped, some with modern furnishings, some just simmering bogs, one has a crystalline lattice suspended from the ceiling. i might even say there is a backrooms-ian quality to the sequential series of spaces: an uncanny artificiality paired with a mystic hum. what i can say for sure though is that it fuels the imagination. i could probably come up with another dozen metaphors for the way this album sounds. vital, essential, stunning. despite the idm.

alright did we satisfy the chinstrokers? 

exphoria

EXPHORIAEXPHORIA

came across this generous comp of one of my favorite genres, which i usually call avant trance (from the hdmirror album of the same name). i might write a bigger thing about this scene, but it has been one of the most vital scenes on the internet for well over a decade now. explorations of experimental trance adjacent music by a diverse array of web producers from around the globe. this comp  is one of  the strongest i've found, really showcasing the best of the style. comps are where this style happens best in my experience, where (in this case) 33 producers from around the world present a singular vision of euphoria. the style gets bent and twisted into LPs of various kinds, some poppier, some more ambient, dancier, more experimental, more hardcore, but on comps like this, and this comp in particular you feel a global collective reaching towards a vision of euphoria always just out of reach. this one is not only one of the best, but its well sequenced playing like an album or mixtape. can't recommend enough. 

ennaria - manifesto

EnnariaMANIFESTO

this one hit like a lightning bolt. this popped up on my feed and of course the album art drew me in. i was expecting some paint by numbers hyperpop but instead i found maybe the most exciting debut of the year. ennaria presents as rainbow scene girl kawaii plushie kandi overload, with pastel rainbow tchotchkes and stickers seemingly spilling from every pore. the sound is essentially hyperpop, but with clever songwriting and bludgeoning production that effortlessly skates through the sharpest sounds of the last 20 years of dance music (and beyond). her voice is remarkable, shifting between cutesy caricature and convincing metal screamster with unnerving ease. the songwriting is moving, honest, detailing the neuroses and preoccupations of a young woman dealing with body image, relationships, and the perils of aspiring to fame in a niche scene. she doesn't shy away from this so i won't either... when i went to check her IG, i was confronted with some disturbing indications of suffering from an eating disorder. the album deals with this explicitly, ruminating on the risk of imminent death she faces from her condition. the sensation is intense, but its refreshing to hear it confronted so directly rather than left totally unspoken. don't let this distract though. on pure musical merits alone this is one of the strongest debuts in the genres history. the album is mostly produced by tracey brakes, who delivers distorted 808s seemingly encrusted in fine sand, psycho trap,  complextro outbursts, some skrillexism, ukg, straight pop, convincing metal, hardstyle of course. the album is a bit uneven, with a couple duds, and a couple tracks that overstay their welcome but the highs are breathtakingly high. i can't help but think this is what something like MCR looks like now. if you have any interest in these styles, this is a must listen. 

kaikobad - cascade ep

KaikobadCascade EP

this is a little bonus. i havent done my research but i get the sense this guy popped off of making music for tiktok / reels. he has some ambient and then he has this ep of 2006 style hazy trancey prog. the production is sort of naive, the songs are sort of basic, but both of those things make it more convincingly 2006 than most attempts to recapture the magic of that era. i can't really justify it but i find myself coming back to this ep over and over again, particularly Freshwater and Cascade. im listening again now and, yeah this is the stuff. the ep includes 'slow versions' so you know its real. by the way, some of these acts that are popping out of the reels/tiktok music scene are extremely legit (the other that comes to mind is cult member), so dont get caught sleeping. if you like hazy melancholic mood music some of the masters are in the mines making 30 seconds at a time to be looped slowed and reverbed by billions around the globe. 

hope you're doing well. feel free to reply to this email if you are compelled, and tell a friend. or just silently absorb the recs and enjoy the music. 

love you <3