Sea of Clouds quadruple release
Sea of Clouds has been teasing the simultaneous release of four albums for a few weeks now, and last night they actually dropped the albums (those absolute madmen!). It accompanies a major redesign of the Sea of Clouds design, including a slightly updated logo. The albums are Human Croquet by Winter of the World, The Whole Room Was Exploding Out into Space by First Kings, Systematic Consciousness by Sentient, and Structure AM 0644-741 by Saturn Form Essence. They are all available for €1 EUR each as digital downloads and for €4 EUR each on CD format in editions of twenty. Sea of Clouds is also offering a bundle deal where customers may purchase all four albums on CD format at once for €12 EUR.
Human Croquet consists of two thirty-six minute album sides that sounds like a hypnagogic drift/ambient vaporwave mixtape. If you’ve heard “Djed” by Tortoise, think of that, except mixed with Future Sound of London (to which Sea of Clouds shouts-out in the album blurb) and vaporwave. This album is a collaboration between International Debris and Noisesurfer that utilizes live improvisation in addition to samplism.
The Whole Room Was Exploding Out into Space is the newest release from First Kings, who’s also released music on Seikomart, Sud Swap Audio Brewing, and Botanica1. In contrast to the long-form experimental nature of Human Conquest, this album is eight generally short tracks that are similar to that found on previous album Criminal Zones. It’s heavily influenced by ambient music, and a few tracks (e.g. “Wetwork”) even get some outrun synth jam going on.
Systematic Consciousness combines hypnagogic drift, chiptune, and ambient vaporwave in a twenty-four track(!) behemoth of a release that wouldn’t be too out of place on a NUWRLD playlist. Whereas other Sea of Clouds releases are entirely ambient music with no percussion, Systematic Consciousness is the opposite, demonstrating a large preponderance of beat-driven tracks that are occasionally similar to the synthwave releases available through Business Casual.
Finally, Structure AM 0644-741 is three tracks of dark ambient music from Saturn Form Essence, which is a side project of Ukranian black metal artist Moloch. This release completely eschews vaporwave for long, moderately unsettling drone music. As the album title demonstrates, all tracks are made to elicit the vastness and emptiness of outer space. Recommended for fans of Lustmord.