Who is Small Town Kid and why does this sound so much more expensive than the name lets on? “Mara” turned up via MrSuicideSheep, still one of the few channels I trust to find this stuff before it’s everywhere, and it’s a gorgeous piece of melodic electronic music. There’s a lead synth in here with a slight detune on it that gives the whole thing a homesick quality, like a melody you remember slightly wrong. The drop isn’t a drop in the drop-the-bass sense; it’s a swell, everything blooming at once and then pulling back before it can overstay. Whoever this is has a real ear for space — the track breathes, leaves gaps, lets a single note ring out where a busier producer would have stacked six more on top. It works equally well at low volume while you’re getting on with your day and at full volume when you want to feel briefly enormous. I’ve played it four times writing this and each pass finds a new detail buried in the pads. Small Town Kid, whoever you are, keep going.
January
Chrome Daydream
Chrome stars, jelly hearts and holographic colour. A nod to the glossy, optimistic graphics of the early web.