Curved Light, Primrose Path: Eastside synth maven Peter Tran continues his outward trajectory of modular exploration, culling from New Age and healing sounds for a 40-plus minute journey.
Family Favorites Vol. 1: Five synth-laden covers (Joy Division, MBV, Ray Price) featuring guest work from ATX players (Sonya Gonzales, Mari Maurice, Neil Lord) benefit local nonprofit Out Youth.
Botany, Phone Ideas: A half-hour sampler of instrumental kosmische beat sketches from Western Vinyl alum Spencer Stephenson, mostly from this past winter, all crafted on a smartphone.
Hojascirculares, Void of Course: Like listening to planets rotate, Ara Hernandez’s newest is a creeping slipstream awash in ambient drone, as well as a sister release to December’s Vessel.
With Great Care: Soaring carefully constructed takeoffs and landings through a 48-minute runtime, Grainger Weston’s debut hoists itself upon the local ambient canon with a gleaming shimmer.
Cuadroped, Bliss: A chiptune-leaning glitch-hop EP over too soon, John Ramos goes less-is-more with the four tracks, inviting like-minded San Antonio producer Brainwavve along for the ride.
Corduroi, Imago: Glitching IDM instrumentals with house framework invites additional DnB breaks and moody ambience on Cody J’s newest EP, available on cassette with tape-exclusive material.
More Eaze, Towards a Plane: Indistinct vox spoken with a stereophonic sigh set into motion a genre-defying cassette for Aural Canyon, Mari Maurice’s unique multi-instrumentalism alluring all the while.
Andrea Cortez, The Secret Song of Plants: Crafted by a music therapist with use of harp and pedals, five nature-connected compositions gently lilt through relaxation with the assistance of electrode-adorned plants.
Michael C. Sharp, Psychic Fugitive: Perpetually traversing new kosmische horizons, the noted percussionist sustains a prolific year of new recordings while joining the burgeoning roster of local tape imprint Somatic.
This article appears in May 29 • 2020.