Future Astronauts - Vessels VII

Future Astronauts is a collective specialised in the making of astounding compilation of hand-picked chilly tracks, master-crafted mixes and podcasts. The 'Vessels' series of compilation serves a good cause (as does all music, is it not?) that of helping raise mental health and suicide prevention awareness and donating all profits to charity.

So here you go, you can do a good deed while listening to state of the art trip-hop, downtempo, UK garage, ambient... you name it!

I'll leave you to it then, see you later.

The Villain - Parallels

Yeah I know, a couple of weeks ago I already shared some beautiful music piece from The Villain, but, you see, I crave this kind of sound so much. The calm, the tranquility, the soothing.

An amazing full-length album this time, featuring 12 tracks of master-crafted Downtempo beats in his own personal style, the result of about a year of sonic experimentations.

This album is bound to be granted a full scholarship to go and live in you favourites of all time. Just press play.

King Shi - Red

Here's a flawless Downtempo gem. I will go as far as considering it one of the best releases ever from Dusted Wax Kingdom.

King Shi takes us on familiar roads, weaving his pieces along the way with great skill, shaping the whole in a manner that is rather hard not to enjoy, not to mention that it will probably take its rightful place amongst your favourites.

A smooth blend of influences (such as Bonobo or Emancipator) set with original and personal compositions, a work of art in itself that is best enjoyed during rainy or snowy days, with wide open ears and good monitors, but not too much volume.

In a nutshell, this music puts your neurons back into place.

To get it, visit DWK's website.

The Villain - Magical Man & The Gritty Mysteries

I don't really remember how I stumbled upon this jewel, but I cherish the day the series of events that led to this one started.

It is without a doubt, one of the best Downtempo albums I've had the opportunity to listen to in a mighty long time. Chilly atmospheres and unidentified flying samples coming from old documentaries about electronic music will enchant you throughout this journey of an album.

As would The Villain say : "The final result is an obscure mess of chapters, narrative and tracklisting, during which you won’t hear even a single second of silence. Enjoy."

I don't have anything to add.

PS : I hope you've steered clear of Valentine's Day and only listened to cool music all day long, together or alone.

Suplington - Tokyo Reflections

Here's an album on which it's really difficult to put a label. Suplington's music alternates between strange, chillesque, ethereal soundwaves and robotic electronic rhythms. I want to say experimental in a way, but in truth isn't everything experimental ?

Those harmonies make me think about Lost Twin, a great producer of weird dreamy music.

I'd say this music is fit for all adventurous headsets.

Vanilla - Origin

Happy new year ! Here's one of the best bestest chill albums ever made. Peace of mind and soul soothing will ensue, I can assure you.

Let's hope to the emperor 2017 will be a little less as crappy as 2016, which everyone seems to think was the worst year ever. I could name some that were a bit worse but let's focus on chill music for now.

Have a good one !

LDBK - All School Flavor Vol. 1

If you don't know about http://radiooooo.com/ yet, it's high time you did ! It's an internet radio that enables you to listen to music from all around the world, but also from different time periods. You can find out what people in Cuba were listening to in the 30's or what those in Kazakhstan are listening to right now.

I discovered the Laid Back netlabel through one of the tracks I heard on the aforementioned radio. Every time I hear something good, I try to find out if there is more and if it is free. There are always new surprises to discover and be baffled by.

So here's a compilation earning its name well, offering tracks from all schools, with a jazzy intro that will lead you to soul, hip-hop, dub, trip-hop, a little bit of everything, as long as it's chillin' grillin'.

Ok now, take a listen, see you soon !

Phonophanatic - Boxbeats Vol. 5

If you want to spend a good moment I suggest you take a listen to any of the albums you may find in Phonophanatic Collective's catalog. But for today, let's take a closer look at this one.

A long time has passed since I've discovered this label with Boxbeats Vol. 2. At the time I already sensed that those guys really understood how to make great chillin grillin music.

Based in Leiden, Netherlands, Phonophanatic offers a very large catalog of releases, all of which are free-priced and packed with groovy and chilly beats. All the artists present in this compilation have careers of their own, exclusive albums that you may find on their pages by looking around a bit.

I wish you well on your quest for the truth.

Beatween - The Ocean Between Us

When DLoaw & Co. specially recommends an album, you never get disappointed, and here's another proof with the debut album from Beatween, a duo from "between Québec and Switzerland" made of Raycord's electronic textures and Maël's acoustic instrumentals.

Clarinet, piano, guitar and drums dance and blend in each other on downtempo beats made of flowing liquid sound.

Not a single faux pas on this album that you may well call a love at first time (I've only listened to it once and it's not even finished when I started writing the article. But there's a good chance I'll listen to it again and again in the future).

IG88 - Hiding in My Hands

Hi !
I'm taking a break during the month of august.

See you in september with lots of music !

Lucky One - Analog Wave

Hi !
I'm taking a break during the month of august.

See you in september with lots of music !

Lost In Sound - VA Compilation #004

It's quite hard to write a little review on this profuse and rich release of 45 tracks (yes, 45, you read right) in such a variety of styles... There is a bite of everything, glitch, techno, electro, piano, dub, dubstep, psydub, you name it... There are also killer bots with laser sight, but you'll hear them soon enough. I better warn you though, that their unique eye can cut through about any material, so watch out.

This compilation was put into being by the Lost In Sound collective as a means of celebrating the comeback of their website and online musical catalog in 2015 (in spring, as you can guess). After contacting more than a hundred artists, they were sent those fourty-five pearls of musical craftsmanship. And there goes a collection of tracks shifting gracefully between up and down, light and dark, bounce and flow. Trippy, futuristic, strange, shwifty...

And entirely free of charge !

You can spot some names we already talked about some times like Mindex, Pericles, bioLumigen, Erothyme and Kalpataru Tree. So much tracks to add to my playlists I cannot even begin to think about it clearly. Ah, if playlists could talk...

Well I'll leave you on this very interesting thought. See you next time.

Oh and don't forget to take a look at LIS's website, there are many a musical pearl to find there. Not all is free, because they do not specialise in that field, but there are some very good things to find. I've just begun to dig the vein myself...

il:lo - Places

Out on the belgian label DLoaw & co. which already did great things like the first and second Secret Garden compilations, Places is a flawless album in which il:lo drags us with him to a world of sunsets, sweet darkness and brass, inhabited by ghostly trumpets and lost souls liking it this way.

It's never too much.

HeapRize - Gang Sign$

I don't know for you, but I am warm inside, with kind of a virtual fireplace, remotely controlled, close-by, and I'm listening to Gang Sign$, a little pearl of hip-hop downtempo that could easily become the instrumental of some groovy rap music.

After a month of automated service (thank you technology), La Mojoteque is back with a human being at the controls.

Tenemos el control.

Long live love

Aligning Minds - My Heart is Love

My Heart is Love. Is there anything else to say ?

This one sets out very slow, with a track that is almost pure ambient and that will probably deter some non-aficionados, and grapple some others. But it changes pretty quick, as the second tracks plays with deep shifting basslines and heralds the following sounds in a more dubby, downtempo, deep and dreamy, with spacey rhytmics, effects and atmosphere.

Some tracks feel like a Metroid stage theme.

Kill Emil - Lights & Shadows

I learnt Kill Emil's existence thanks to Cédric, who's been following La Mojoteque for a while now. Yeah, thank you man for making my hard drive and brain yet again overflow with excellent music !

Kill Emil comes from Greece. A sign that even the worst of crises and political fuss cannot kill art, free art, art for art ! They can throw missiles, arm soldiers, destroy the meaning and value of money, art will rise above again and again !

Situated between a groovy swingy electrochill and the most "street music by night" urban chill you can find, Kill Emil succeeds in not going too far in those two styles and creating his own, which you're about to discover (if you didn't already).

I'll leave you now to listen to Lights & Shadows, a terrific album from the far away time of 2014...

And remember, one part rice, two parts water.

Soulular - AWAKE

Laugh, Quartz. Awake, Goddess. Listen, I am Time.
The tracks from this album look like one of those weird sentences you hear in your dreams, just before waking, which you try to decipher all day long, not knowing how or why.

I discovered Soulular's music before La Mojoteque even existed, with the album Thoughts Float, and the least I can say is that his style really evolved, while remaining balanced and constant, keeping his most soulularesque touch that you can recognize by broken voices, slow rhythms rising through time and space, and a deep electric calm atmosphere.

Listening to soulular is like diving in a sea of liquid which has electrolytes.

Auditive Escape - Auditive Escape

Have you ever thought of a particular artist whose work, whose every single piece you always really like, without any exception, a painter whose paintings you cannot stop looking at, a band whose music you never tire to listen to ?

Well I'm having this kind of issue with Auditive Escape's music. Actually I think I'm going to put all his discography on the blog. It will be the case one day, because each of his albums is such a pure concentrate of dreamy chillcore vibrating through moved air molecules. That is what you can find in the first eponymous album by Auditive Escape, to which I had never listened until today, shame on me. Do not hesitate to take a listen at his other pieces, but in any case, they will end here eventually.

Good listening to you all

Peace and lord.

Bustre - This One's For You

This sublime release does not pretend changing anything in the peaceful world of chill music, but merely adding its small contribution to it, because there is never enough.
Beautiful atmospheres, slow rhythms caressing your weary brain cells, nostalgic melodies from outer-space.

Here's the ideal way to lower your tension to a normal level.

Take your time to listen to each track closely.

With a cat on your knees, it's even more effective !

Jenova 7 & Mr. Moods - Time Travellers II

Welcome to the month of june, that means the end of school, success, failure, change, revolving doors, sun and... well, music.

I suggest we begin this sunny month with an album that we'll listen best while this troublesome gigantic ball of fire sets and lets nocturnal beings get out of their lair to listen to subtle rhythms, groovy flying saxophone solos and samples out of nowhere, on a long chair or not, with or without a glass of wine or a white beer with lemon at hand's reach.

Jenova 7 and Mr. Moods are artists of exception, especially in the world of chill music. Always meaning quality, you can just listen to everything they do and never get bored nor disappointed. You can go with eyes closed, to be sure, it's even better !

See you then.