Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Dive Signals - 10,000 Tropics


Here's a pleasant warm breeze that swirled its way into my mailbox; Dive Signals is one Angel Ortega, a bedroom producer from Orange County.

Like a sunset on a cloudy day, warm and gauzy; pink, orange, and red. Colorful drones and smooth downtempo beats that caress all the right pleasure centers, this is like viewing instrumental hip-hop or 90s trip-hop at the bottom of the ocean. A narcotic haze hangs over the whole record, a warm summer lull. This would've been called Folktronica at one point, with its cheap and easy strumming guitars and head-nodding beatbase; if anyone happened to dig that Bibio record i posted a long time ago, or the 2muchachos one, for that matter, will be into this. It could appeal to Grouper and J Dilla fans alike.

Ortega uses the cheapest imaginable gear, with every element tweaked and polished; reverbed, EQed, run through various guitar pedals, 10,000 Tropics is a unified whole, a singular experience, best served up on pillow-y headphones, perfect soundtrack for new spring ambling. Dive Signals is an up and coming talent, only two releases to his credit so far, and 10,000 Tropics can be had, for whatever price you deem worthy. I've really been enjoying this one. Let it be the score for the coming blossoms, pollen and bees.

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