I don't know if it's commercially available yet, but I just recevied the new
Electric Birds CD, "Strata Frames" on the Belgian label U-Cover
(www.u-cover.com). Electric Birds is Mike Martinez of Deluxe Records fame;
I've got his previous CDs but I don't remember him EVER sounding like this:
this is deep, swirling Vladislav Delay-styled gear, but not derivative in
the slightest. I might even like this more. Mike plays pendant, resonant
drones off pings and clicks and whirrs, a description that hardly lives up
to how good this is. Incredibly lyrical, but still a good deal more
abstracted than, say, Boards of Canada (who I reference only because I think
they're one of the more lyrical, melodic IDM artists around right now).
This is powerfull stuff, with a much more advanced tonal range than most of
the glitchy ambient stuff I've been hearing for quite a while. Top 10 of
2001 candidate. Goes nicely with a spliff, too. :)
Limited to 955, so don't sleep...
Cheers
Philip