caramobazgo
This album is such a fun combination of styles and and immensely satisfying listen. Danceable with plenty of room to breathe and helps me focus too. Glad I got the cassette bc it sounds extra gooey. Can't wait to hear more from Xyla :)
Favorite track: Cold (feat. Oso Feo).
CBDiabla
Colorful, lush, and immensely replayable. All of these songs are incredibly produced and deserve to be played in speakers that pack a punch.
Favorite track: Feel.
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Leaving Records introduces San Francisco’s Xyla to the world. The classical musician-turned-producer’s debut full-length Ways presents a fresh, electronic yet organic sound that deftly skates over and around genre limitations into a deeply felt, lush and hyper-futuristic group of songs. Echoes of sweaty rave anthems and classic IDM head trips can be heard strewn throughout Ways’ serpentine compositions, awash in deep ambient swirls and intriguingly twisted samples. Of the album’s title, Xyla states, “Sometimes you think of how things could’ve been. There are a million different ways that things can go.” The eight tracks on Ways each feel like a uniquely personal expression, heavy feelings processed by the producer’s classical music training and extrapolated through exciting self-taught production methods.
The trajectory of Ways covers many different moods and atmospheres. Early standout “Now” inhabits a reflective space, emotive vocal samples mingling with a variety of expressively filtered synths. Xyla states, “It was a very vulnerable time when I was making this music. It was winter, I quit my job, and I had lost a few close people. I just really felt like, ‘Now that I need you, where are you?’” The devastating “Cold” mirrors its title with thick smears of psychedelic pads, abetted by deliriously sliced vocals stabs and a ferocious acid bassline. Title track “Ways” straddles the line between footwork and ambient, a stuttering, endlessly listenable track that unfolds new and unexpected sounds at each turn.
The pairing of Xyla and Leaving Records is a natural one, with the label and producer sharing an affinity for adventurous musical styles that defy easy categorization. Xyla states, “I listen to so much music, and I really feel like my music is all over the place … I was having an identity crisis, and then Leaving Records announces the mantra ‘All Genre, All Genre, All Genre,’ …… ‘yes, that’s me.’”
credits
released October 30, 2020
all music produced and mixed by Xyla
art by Kendra Azulírís (www.instagram.com/water_witch/)
flute by Joyce Lee
layout by Brin
a music garden; a garden that i can take anywhere, place it on my ears and enjoy its calming ambience. for nature-deprived folks (like me), it's awesome. wolftetsudo
Just discovered Sam Wilkes and some of his work and bass playing, and arrived to this record. It reminds me a lot to John Hassell/Eno era a bit more jazzy, and all the ambient music from the 80’s. I love it! Santi Umbert
Created in Goa, India, without the benefit of a studio, “Serpentine” is an adrenaline shot to the heart—relentlessly joyous dance music. Bandcamp New & Notable Dec 12, 2022
The two sides to producer Steve White’s music—futurism and soulfulness—sit more comfortably together than ever before on his latest album as Steve Spacek, which balances boundary-testing sonics with earnest, heart-on-sleeve lyrics. Bandcamp Album of the Day Dec 11, 2018
I love this album! It helps me imagine the micro and macrocosms in the earth and in the soil and in space! a multi-scalar, multi sensory experience of ecosystems across time and space. Warm golden light, slow crystal growth over eons, geological forces and deep time, walking through woods, looking at plants and the smell of petrichor (the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil) jen-du-chatsein