#vegenaut

Harmonious Discord label boss and abstract artist PointBender returns with Dusk Frontier, his third and most expressly creative full-length album yet. PointBender is the moniker of Sean Anderson, an independent artist living in Austin, Texas, who has been putting out back-pocket releases for over fifteen years on imprints like Guidance, Thoughtless, Blaq, and his own imprint. Dusk Frontier is one-and-a-half years in the making and features collaborations from Toronto-based vocalist and Lal frontwoman Rosina Kazi, Texas-based dub artist Vegenaut, and techno artist Matthew Thompson. Sean took a new approach to constructing this album, focusing on recording single takes of audio directly and limiting himself to outboard gear with minimal computer intervention. In addition, the album features a multitude of live instrumentation with recordings of guitar, bass, drums, and clarinet alongside some personal field recordings. Dusk Frontier embodies a new outlook and direction for PointBender as an artist and is a taste of the future of the project.

Among the highlights is the title track which is a mixture of deep moods and cinematic overtures supported by driving percussion. Rosina Kazi provides a wide range of vocal phrases and complex harmonies over a field of growing synthesizer interplay. For "Brain Mud", Sean teams up with Vegenaut, a cross-genre artist with a flair for off-kilter glitchy dub works. Together they create a messy slow burn with smooth bass and a competing mixture of leads and synth sketches. There's also "Dub Creature", a canonical example of PointBender’s signature cinematic sound. Tightly controlled dub chords build into a druggy midnight bouncer with bass slides and plenty of dark arpeggios. The album closes with "Three Complications", an '80s-inspired piece that toes the line between indie-dance and a proper Balearic house song. There's much more to dig into here … each selection has its unique lens and language. Dusk Frontier is a thoughtful narrative on the boundaries of electronic music and how to push past cemented dance floor formulas.

Nick Warren (Hope Recordings) - "An excellent album. 'Brain Mud' and 'Dub Creature' are very fine." Atish (Desert Hearts / Robot Heart) - "'Dusk Frontier' has an amazing vocal, and 'Dub Creature' has a really nice deep waviness. Actually I like all the tracks in some way … quite a bit to explore here!" Anthony Pappa (Red Light District / Bedrock) – “Cool album. Some nice tracks here that will be used.” Massimiliano Pagliara (Live At Robert Johnson) - "Digging 'Three Complications'." DJ Aldrin (One With Music, Singapore) - "Wow … nice one!" Kazuumi Ishii (Electronic Directory, Japan) - "A deep yet beautiful album." Adam Warped (Whiskey Pickle / Strange Days) - "Nice work. Really enjoying the drone like ambience of 'Intro to an Aircraft'." Alinep (Circle Music / Time in Manila) - "Big album here … all tracks are quality." Harry Avers (NOICE!) - "Solid release … enough ear candy to listen to for days." Jay Douzi (Runtomorrow) - "Digging this album … 'Steam Morris' is dope! I'm going to play it out this weekend." Tariq Ziyad (Nu Urban ERA) - "A truly impressive musical journey. This is a great dance music album, the likes of which we used to get in the golden era. Excellent." Esette (Substation Recordings / Girls on Decks) – “I’m loving ‘Passive Casio’ & ‘Three Complications’. This is a fun release with lots of diversity.” Lee Guthrie (Click Therapy / Wiggle) – “’Pferd’, ‘Dusk Frontier’, and ‘Passive Casio’ all very nicely done.”

Every year at this time the Harmonious Discord label issues a new installment of its Discordian Dreaming series which gives a preview of what the label has in store for the year to come. This sixth annual issue is another superb collection of sonic sensations exploring the outer reaches of the musical frontier and showcases arising talent on the HD radar. Label heroes such as Vegenaut, Signal Deluxe, Smight, and Wirik join newer discoveries Ill76, Gians, El Natured, The Hermans, Joshua Kynd, and Christian Barbuto for a fantastic assemblage of diverse and boundary-stretching electronic sounds. Warehouse techno, moody downtempo, swingy tech-house, and deep, atmospheric machine music are all examples of the styles that can be found here though, in true Harmonious Discord fashion, more than a few of the tracks blur the lines between those designations. Dive in … there’s plenty to take in with a quality quotient that aims to impress.

Dave Taylor (Switch, Major Lazer) - “Tight!” Orde Meikle (Slam, Soma) - “Nice tracks!” Joshua Jacobs (Music You Need blog) - “Deep and dark sounds from the underground courtesy of Harmonious Discord. Smooth bass lines, soothing melodies, and funky drums make for quite the compilation.” Summer (Tulipa Recordings) - “Very good release!” Cheets (Global Dance Sessions) - “Some lush deepness here. The remix for ‘Day Dreaming’ is my pick.” Steve Venom (Kozmik Hype) - “Classic style with today’s sound … will play!” Ulysses (Neurotic Drum Band) - “Nice pack of tunes.” Paul Corey (Ibiza Voice) - “A nice, cosmic collection. Particularly ‘Lost Messages’ and ‘Pink Tangerine’ for me.” QuestionmarQ (Red FM) - “Hard to pick a favorite … ‘Day Dreaming’ just pips it, though am very found of the Oskan remix and loving the driving hypnotic rhythm on ‘Pink Tangerine.’” Andy Slate (Soulmate) - “WOW! ‘5th Objective’ is amazing … love it!” Bobi (Global Movement, Club FM) - “Wow. Really needed this cool deep dosis for my ears. Will support it all.” German MT (Como Las Grecas blog) - “Some really great tracks. Molecule, Ill76, and Wirik are all superb.” Aldrin (Zouk Club, Singapore) - “I’m feeling the dubby-ness of Gians remix, ‘5th Objective,’ and ‘Pink Tangerine.’” Maxim Ryzhkov (Free Ends Radio Show, Moscow) - “Absolutely great track from Vegenaut!” Paul Corey (Ibiza Voice) - “A nice, cosmic collection. Particularly ‘Lost Messages’ and ‘Pink Tangerine’ for me.”