Assembled by hand, one copy at a time, in the White Pillar Workshop. A white 5" recordable compact disc, printed and duplicated via an Imation D20, held securely inside a die-cut cardboard jacket with a 4x5" glossy photographic print insert and a custom text label on the back. Ships inside a clear cast-polypropylene sleeve with a flap, to keep your new sonic artifact dust and moisture free.
Includes unlimited streaming of Ambrox Orange
via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.
Milieu has had a busy year, with regard to issuing "pop" albums of melodic composition and rhythmic reliability - Blurry Thursday, Thalline Dress, Stellar Debris and the Fan Club exclusive High In The Middle all see me in ultra-stimming mode, programming all kinds of details in my little square-pushing drum machines and coaxing all manner of color-tonality overload from a varied synthesizer collection and a 1.5-year old modular system that seems to be finally able to pull itself up on furniture and occasionally say "Daddy."
So then, it should come as no surprise at all that I've still not yet exhausted myself on this pop-music funtime trip I seem to be on, and I have a new single packed tight with the good stuff, ready to be vaporized in celebration of the arrival of Autumn. '21 has been a shit year for the most part, just like '20, and perhaps this is what has compelled me toward both hyper-melodic and stimulation-seeking ends (as well as further into the deep end of meditation and disconnection via Vibratelepathos and Workingman's Drone sessions) - it's not possible to be sure, but in lieu of certainty and self-assurance, I am happy to offer up yet another slice of self-deprecating bedroom techno for you to peruse, hopefully subtracting you from our miserable worldly situations just that little bit more...
AMBROX ORANGE feels like it could have been included on Thalline Dress or Stellar Debris or High In The Middle, and perhaps for that reason, it's better to put it out alone...or nearly alone. It's a psychedelic wide-lens barnburner that isn't quite acid or jungle or glitched out braindance, but somewhere between all of those things like a piece of sun-dried bubblegum in the sidewalk. It also brings me back to moments on Academy Stripes and Polypsilon, which is nice because it means there's a lot going on in only seven minutes. I've been lucky to come into five (!!!) chopped and screwed and totally BLUNTED remixes made lovingly by BLACK WICK (aka the owner of the illustrious Illuminated Paths tape label that issued Daughter and the remastered Dusty Box, among other things - he is also half of Poolside Rail Bus with me, for those wondering). Needing some sequential glue, as I often do, I dug out a couple outtakes from various sessions this Summer and last and included them here - ETHER CYMBAL, a tropical wonk interlude from a livestream session, and DUSK TREADER, a reduced version of the lesser-known b-side BORIS & HIS BEDROOM BEAT.
All eight tracks coalesce to form a unique and slightly spooky experience, music for trick-or-treating in Milieu-Land if you like. I'm calling AMBROX a single, but in truth you're getting almost 40 minutes of jams. Special thanks are due to Black Wick for his talents and time, and Sophia for helping out with titles and putting up with me getting stoned and playing back tracks over and over again to get my mixing notes straight. Extra special ORANGE thanks to Ross - without his Juno 106-shaped contribution to the Workshop, this recording could not exist.
credits
released October 1, 2021
W/P by Brian Grainger, except #2/4/6/7/8 written by Brian and produced by Black Wick. #1/3/5 recorded at White Pillar Workshop, 2021. Mastered by The Analog Botanist. Photography, design and text by ABM&D. This is Milieu Music number MML153. (C) + (P) Oscillog ASCAP 2021. All flights reserved.
The acclaimed Melbourne producer delivers two club-focused tracks that bridge the gap between electro and bass music. Bandcamp New & Notable Jun 3, 2020