sam mcqueen: dreams in sepia

Sam McQueen (Indio co-producer with John Beltran) presents his debut album Dreams In Sepia for Mojuba sub-label, a.r.t.less, and delivers a real-time soundscape of the moment, an epic-like document of these times. The rhythms are subtle, sometimes broken, the time structures often complex, this is not primarily dancefloor orientated music. These sounds are way more cerebral, for the heads. They reflect perfectly the complexities of life we are experiencing in 2020. The edges are rounded with occasional strolling bass lines and comfy chords. Slabs of keys and spaced-out female vocals like a psychedelic journey that scares you at first yet comforts you soon after. Sam McQueen's mediatory sounds give an overwhelming sense of the moment. The music makes you take time out and listen. Its purposeful manner suggests there are more hours in the day, like time slowing down a pause, like the sun slithering slowly behind the horizon. These are sunset sounds for dark back-rooms. Daytime or night, it works. This is the soundtrack for the other room, the deeper sounds not designed to make you dance. This music doesn't get in your face, it creeps up and smacks you on the ass. There are elements of early '90s UK techno, a warmth and delicateness that pervades a distinct lack of four-four dancefloor in the beat structures, a softer tone throughout than the harder Detroit techno sounds of the same era but still nods and acknowledgements to the D in the layout and way the sounds present themselves. Think John Beltran, Symbols and Instruments, Black Dog or Kirk DeGiorgio, mid '90s Berlin sounds from Basic Channel/Rhythm & Sound, but in lockdown. The sounds often familiar, analog, the drums, hi-hats, and snares, shimmer, jazz style. They accentuate and push the rest of the elements around them. Cover artwork by Kilian Eng; hand-numbered.