the kahvi collective, still one of my top netlabels, has put out another excellent commercial release. as i have written before, all the artists i feature on this blog deserve your support for their hard work, and this is a perfect opportunity to 'show some love.'
Robot Dreams, released as part of kahvi's 10-year anniversary(!) celebration, is a massive compilation with 23 tracks in all. nearly all the kahvi all-stars are here, along with some artists who i am not familiar with, and they have all submitted great music. i found it actually quite difficult to pick favorite tracks, because each piece is really excellent. even a couple artists whose previous releases i wasn't particularly fond of surprised me with some really nice submissions (i wont name any names here, but lets just leave it that its an excellent compilation all around)
the tracks are naturally held together by the signature kahvi sound: bright, glittery electronics with a penchant for wide, expansive soundscapes. the mood ranges from delicate and chilled to intense and cinematic, some tracks are more beat-oriented, some less.
one standout track is certainly KiloWatts'
Foothold Herald's Summit View, an epic 12-minute journey through thick, frantic, idm-esque beats and bloops (which is practically a mini-ep on its own). also for the idm-heads, there is the vocoder funk of brioskj's
oxegen, the furious, pulsing, lead-driven
Beneath a Steel Sky by kahvi curator 4T-Thieves, and the glitchy chimes and cruchy beats of
AngelFace by Aaron Jansinski.
those in a more chillout/ambient mood should certainly check out the quiet piano+nature atmospheres of
Moon Kiss by Acrillic Colors, the scifi spacemusic of the title track by coax, or the warmly pleasant
go inwards by general fuzz.
other standout tracks include
WindsOfNeptune by introspective, workbench's euphoric track
ascent, and the densely layered
Summer's Gold by Xurba.
as of this posting, the compilation is available only beatport.com for 1,99€ per track (perhaps rather unfortunate for my american readers, but still worth purchasing at least a few tracks, imho..) it should be available on other digital outlets shortly. appropriate purchase links, along with info about all the artists are available
here.
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edit: Robot Dreams
now available on emusic!
