aleph: offseason traveller

Berlin-based producer Aera has been travelling off the beaten path ever since he first went on the road with his Aleph Music label back in 2010. With only five releases, he already laid out his very own musical topography in the borderlands in between house, UK bass and psychedelia. Aera is now excited to present his debut album, Offseason Traveller. It is a personal notebook of his voyage of discovery to the vast landscapes of Peru and Bolivia, fleeing Berlin in pursuit of new ideas, eyes and ears. Drawing upon influences as diverse as German Krautrock, Detroit machine funk, South American ethnic percussion and UK bass music, Offseason Traveller takes the listener on an exploration through the ever-active imagination of Aera. Album concepts are hard to shape with regards to electronic dance music, but Aera has sequenced his debut just right. From the opening off-beat ambience of "Kiss Off" and "Baby/Comet/Face," the joyful morning-glow of "Fever Beach" and the dusky, dubby "Cambio," we are taken to the swinging, jacking, 303-drenched peaks of "Leaving the Fiction" and "Chevere" towards the trotting Shaolin funk of "Die Pferden." The syncopated beatdown-ish funk of "Viejo Loco," the blippy space-opera of "Flipside of Time" and the industrial, Carpenter-esqe filmscore of "Tunguska" close the harder, more percussive mid-section of the album. To finish our voyage of discovery, "Iguazu Express" takes the listener into the closing straits with a spine-shaking, deep house groove while "By the Red Lake" berths us at our home port with sparkling keys, evocative vibrations and squelching waves of joy. Cut and mastered by CGB at Dubplates & Mastering.

Aera - Die Pferden by .Aera