Barker
Stochastic Drift
Boomkat Product Review:
Barker's most satisfying full-length yet, 'Stochastic Drift' unfolds like a galaxy-brained afters playlist, blending the best bits of Eno, SND/Mark Fell, Aleksi Perälä, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Sasha and Photek to figure out a verdant mid-point between various tangled sounds and concepts - equal temperament and xenharmonic experimentation, automation and human expression, beats and ambience.
It would have been too easy for Sam Barker to simply keep rehashing the drumless trance template he perfected on 2018's revered 'Debiasing'. But as we noticed on 2023's 'Unfixed' EP, his first release for Smalltown, Barker's relentless research and development makes his music as fluid and mutable as his palette. There's a distinctive character to his productions, allowing him the freedom to traverse different territory with relative ease. On that last record, finely manicured remnants of Gescom, Orbital, AFX and MMM coalesced into an engaging study of dancefloor rhythmelodics - almost as an answer to anyone still hung up on 'Debiasing'. And he widens his gaze on 'Stochastic Drift', studying the canon and responding with a style that's neither one thing nor the other. Barker's an artist who's acutely aware of his history and isn't afraid to show his work - the references aren't the critical part, it's the process itself that's most important.
'Force of Habit' is a fine example of this; on the surface, it's spot welded remnants of Art of Noise, SND and 808 Mafia, with reverberating glassy stabs, canned chorals, clipped steps and sub rupturing emo-rap bass, but it's still easy to place as Barker's work. Similarly, he harks back to his best-known release with 'Reframing', a track that, in the press release's own words, is "a brittle reimagining of Sasha's eternal prog trance standard 'Xpander'," yet it neither sounds exactly like 'Debiasing' or its stated inspiration. It's the confidence that makes it work - Barker manages to bottle the kinetic euphoria of Sasha's original but leans into the fact that we all know it, fraying the edges with canny emphasis shifts and psychedelic contortions. Even when he tussles with odd tunings on 'Difference and Repetition' and 'Positive Disintegration', it's handled so casually that you almost don't notice it. Playing his fictile xenharmonic synths against dubstep-inspired snare snaps and dubby Dozzy-isms, you get lost in the mood, not snagged on the details.
He keeps on proving the point, gesturing to Squarepusher with the skittering title track, a surge of Roland squiggles, plucked basses and jazzy fills, and Photek's moodiest downtempo moments on the noir-esque 'Fluid Mechanics'. His choice of instrumentation throughout keeps things coherent, and helps him obscure the divide between the main stage and the back room. It's not only removing a beat that can shift the assumed logic of a sound we think we know inside out, it's queering the pitch, skewing the rhythm or inverting the dynamics. By casting our mind back to some of the music we love best, and not just repackaging it but reframing (cough) it, he's gifted us an album that's as accessible as it is experimental. There's no gatekeeping here, and no IDM snobbiness - just pure vibes.
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Boomkat Product Review:
Barker's most satisfying full-length yet, 'Stochastic Drift' unfolds like a galaxy-brained afters playlist, blending the best bits of Eno, SND/Mark Fell, Aleksi Perälä, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Sasha and Photek to figure out a verdant mid-point between various tangled sounds and concepts - equal temperament and xenharmonic experimentation, automation and human expression, beats and ambience.
It would have been too easy for Sam Barker to simply keep rehashing the drumless trance template he perfected on 2018's revered 'Debiasing'. But as we noticed on 2023's 'Unfixed' EP, his first release for Smalltown, Barker's relentless research and development makes his music as fluid and mutable as his palette. There's a distinctive character to his productions, allowing him the freedom to traverse different territory with relative ease. On that last record, finely manicured remnants of Gescom, Orbital, AFX and MMM coalesced into an engaging study of dancefloor rhythmelodics - almost as an answer to anyone still hung up on 'Debiasing'. And he widens his gaze on 'Stochastic Drift', studying the canon and responding with a style that's neither one thing nor the other. Barker's an artist who's acutely aware of his history and isn't afraid to show his work - the references aren't the critical part, it's the process itself that's most important.
'Force of Habit' is a fine example of this; on the surface, it's spot welded remnants of Art of Noise, SND and 808 Mafia, with reverberating glassy stabs, canned chorals, clipped steps and sub rupturing emo-rap bass, but it's still easy to place as Barker's work. Similarly, he harks back to his best-known release with 'Reframing', a track that, in the press release's own words, is "a brittle reimagining of Sasha's eternal prog trance standard 'Xpander'," yet it neither sounds exactly like 'Debiasing' or its stated inspiration. It's the confidence that makes it work - Barker manages to bottle the kinetic euphoria of Sasha's original but leans into the fact that we all know it, fraying the edges with canny emphasis shifts and psychedelic contortions. Even when he tussles with odd tunings on 'Difference and Repetition' and 'Positive Disintegration', it's handled so casually that you almost don't notice it. Playing his fictile xenharmonic synths against dubstep-inspired snare snaps and dubby Dozzy-isms, you get lost in the mood, not snagged on the details.
He keeps on proving the point, gesturing to Squarepusher with the skittering title track, a surge of Roland squiggles, plucked basses and jazzy fills, and Photek's moodiest downtempo moments on the noir-esque 'Fluid Mechanics'. His choice of instrumentation throughout keeps things coherent, and helps him obscure the divide between the main stage and the back room. It's not only removing a beat that can shift the assumed logic of a sound we think we know inside out, it's queering the pitch, skewing the rhythm or inverting the dynamics. By casting our mind back to some of the music we love best, and not just repackaging it but reframing (cough) it, he's gifted us an album that's as accessible as it is experimental. There's no gatekeeping here, and no IDM snobbiness - just pure vibes.
Boomkat Product Review:
Barker's most satisfying full-length yet, 'Stochastic Drift' unfolds like a galaxy-brained afters playlist, blending the best bits of Eno, SND/Mark Fell, Aleksi Perälä, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Sasha and Photek to figure out a verdant mid-point between various tangled sounds and concepts - equal temperament and xenharmonic experimentation, automation and human expression, beats and ambience.
It would have been too easy for Sam Barker to simply keep rehashing the drumless trance template he perfected on 2018's revered 'Debiasing'. But as we noticed on 2023's 'Unfixed' EP, his first release for Smalltown, Barker's relentless research and development makes his music as fluid and mutable as his palette. There's a distinctive character to his productions, allowing him the freedom to traverse different territory with relative ease. On that last record, finely manicured remnants of Gescom, Orbital, AFX and MMM coalesced into an engaging study of dancefloor rhythmelodics - almost as an answer to anyone still hung up on 'Debiasing'. And he widens his gaze on 'Stochastic Drift', studying the canon and responding with a style that's neither one thing nor the other. Barker's an artist who's acutely aware of his history and isn't afraid to show his work - the references aren't the critical part, it's the process itself that's most important.
'Force of Habit' is a fine example of this; on the surface, it's spot welded remnants of Art of Noise, SND and 808 Mafia, with reverberating glassy stabs, canned chorals, clipped steps and sub rupturing emo-rap bass, but it's still easy to place as Barker's work. Similarly, he harks back to his best-known release with 'Reframing', a track that, in the press release's own words, is "a brittle reimagining of Sasha's eternal prog trance standard 'Xpander'," yet it neither sounds exactly like 'Debiasing' or its stated inspiration. It's the confidence that makes it work - Barker manages to bottle the kinetic euphoria of Sasha's original but leans into the fact that we all know it, fraying the edges with canny emphasis shifts and psychedelic contortions. Even when he tussles with odd tunings on 'Difference and Repetition' and 'Positive Disintegration', it's handled so casually that you almost don't notice it. Playing his fictile xenharmonic synths against dubstep-inspired snare snaps and dubby Dozzy-isms, you get lost in the mood, not snagged on the details.
He keeps on proving the point, gesturing to Squarepusher with the skittering title track, a surge of Roland squiggles, plucked basses and jazzy fills, and Photek's moodiest downtempo moments on the noir-esque 'Fluid Mechanics'. His choice of instrumentation throughout keeps things coherent, and helps him obscure the divide between the main stage and the back room. It's not only removing a beat that can shift the assumed logic of a sound we think we know inside out, it's queering the pitch, skewing the rhythm or inverting the dynamics. By casting our mind back to some of the music we love best, and not just repackaging it but reframing (cough) it, he's gifted us an album that's as accessible as it is experimental. There's no gatekeeping here, and no IDM snobbiness - just pure vibes.
Boomkat Product Review:
Barker's most satisfying full-length yet, 'Stochastic Drift' unfolds like a galaxy-brained afters playlist, blending the best bits of Eno, SND/Mark Fell, Aleksi Perälä, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Sasha and Photek to figure out a verdant mid-point between various tangled sounds and concepts - equal temperament and xenharmonic experimentation, automation and human expression, beats and ambience.
It would have been too easy for Sam Barker to simply keep rehashing the drumless trance template he perfected on 2018's revered 'Debiasing'. But as we noticed on 2023's 'Unfixed' EP, his first release for Smalltown, Barker's relentless research and development makes his music as fluid and mutable as his palette. There's a distinctive character to his productions, allowing him the freedom to traverse different territory with relative ease. On that last record, finely manicured remnants of Gescom, Orbital, AFX and MMM coalesced into an engaging study of dancefloor rhythmelodics - almost as an answer to anyone still hung up on 'Debiasing'. And he widens his gaze on 'Stochastic Drift', studying the canon and responding with a style that's neither one thing nor the other. Barker's an artist who's acutely aware of his history and isn't afraid to show his work - the references aren't the critical part, it's the process itself that's most important.
'Force of Habit' is a fine example of this; on the surface, it's spot welded remnants of Art of Noise, SND and 808 Mafia, with reverberating glassy stabs, canned chorals, clipped steps and sub rupturing emo-rap bass, but it's still easy to place as Barker's work. Similarly, he harks back to his best-known release with 'Reframing', a track that, in the press release's own words, is "a brittle reimagining of Sasha's eternal prog trance standard 'Xpander'," yet it neither sounds exactly like 'Debiasing' or its stated inspiration. It's the confidence that makes it work - Barker manages to bottle the kinetic euphoria of Sasha's original but leans into the fact that we all know it, fraying the edges with canny emphasis shifts and psychedelic contortions. Even when he tussles with odd tunings on 'Difference and Repetition' and 'Positive Disintegration', it's handled so casually that you almost don't notice it. Playing his fictile xenharmonic synths against dubstep-inspired snare snaps and dubby Dozzy-isms, you get lost in the mood, not snagged on the details.
He keeps on proving the point, gesturing to Squarepusher with the skittering title track, a surge of Roland squiggles, plucked basses and jazzy fills, and Photek's moodiest downtempo moments on the noir-esque 'Fluid Mechanics'. His choice of instrumentation throughout keeps things coherent, and helps him obscure the divide between the main stage and the back room. It's not only removing a beat that can shift the assumed logic of a sound we think we know inside out, it's queering the pitch, skewing the rhythm or inverting the dynamics. By casting our mind back to some of the music we love best, and not just repackaging it but reframing (cough) it, he's gifted us an album that's as accessible as it is experimental. There's no gatekeeping here, and no IDM snobbiness - just pure vibes.
Out of Stock
Boomkat Product Review:
Barker's most satisfying full-length yet, 'Stochastic Drift' unfolds like a galaxy-brained afters playlist, blending the best bits of Eno, SND/Mark Fell, Aleksi Perälä, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Sasha and Photek to figure out a verdant mid-point between various tangled sounds and concepts - equal temperament and xenharmonic experimentation, automation and human expression, beats and ambience.
It would have been too easy for Sam Barker to simply keep rehashing the drumless trance template he perfected on 2018's revered 'Debiasing'. But as we noticed on 2023's 'Unfixed' EP, his first release for Smalltown, Barker's relentless research and development makes his music as fluid and mutable as his palette. There's a distinctive character to his productions, allowing him the freedom to traverse different territory with relative ease. On that last record, finely manicured remnants of Gescom, Orbital, AFX and MMM coalesced into an engaging study of dancefloor rhythmelodics - almost as an answer to anyone still hung up on 'Debiasing'. And he widens his gaze on 'Stochastic Drift', studying the canon and responding with a style that's neither one thing nor the other. Barker's an artist who's acutely aware of his history and isn't afraid to show his work - the references aren't the critical part, it's the process itself that's most important.
'Force of Habit' is a fine example of this; on the surface, it's spot welded remnants of Art of Noise, SND and 808 Mafia, with reverberating glassy stabs, canned chorals, clipped steps and sub rupturing emo-rap bass, but it's still easy to place as Barker's work. Similarly, he harks back to his best-known release with 'Reframing', a track that, in the press release's own words, is "a brittle reimagining of Sasha's eternal prog trance standard 'Xpander'," yet it neither sounds exactly like 'Debiasing' or its stated inspiration. It's the confidence that makes it work - Barker manages to bottle the kinetic euphoria of Sasha's original but leans into the fact that we all know it, fraying the edges with canny emphasis shifts and psychedelic contortions. Even when he tussles with odd tunings on 'Difference and Repetition' and 'Positive Disintegration', it's handled so casually that you almost don't notice it. Playing his fictile xenharmonic synths against dubstep-inspired snare snaps and dubby Dozzy-isms, you get lost in the mood, not snagged on the details.
He keeps on proving the point, gesturing to Squarepusher with the skittering title track, a surge of Roland squiggles, plucked basses and jazzy fills, and Photek's moodiest downtempo moments on the noir-esque 'Fluid Mechanics'. His choice of instrumentation throughout keeps things coherent, and helps him obscure the divide between the main stage and the back room. It's not only removing a beat that can shift the assumed logic of a sound we think we know inside out, it's queering the pitch, skewing the rhythm or inverting the dynamics. By casting our mind back to some of the music we love best, and not just repackaging it but reframing (cough) it, he's gifted us an album that's as accessible as it is experimental. There's no gatekeeping here, and no IDM snobbiness - just pure vibes.
Limited edition Transparent coloured vinyl, with a download dropped to your account.
Out of Stock
Boomkat Product Review:
Barker's most satisfying full-length yet, 'Stochastic Drift' unfolds like a galaxy-brained afters playlist, blending the best bits of Eno, SND/Mark Fell, Aleksi Perälä, Hiroshi Yoshimura, Sasha and Photek to figure out a verdant mid-point between various tangled sounds and concepts - equal temperament and xenharmonic experimentation, automation and human expression, beats and ambience.
It would have been too easy for Sam Barker to simply keep rehashing the drumless trance template he perfected on 2018's revered 'Debiasing'. But as we noticed on 2023's 'Unfixed' EP, his first release for Smalltown, Barker's relentless research and development makes his music as fluid and mutable as his palette. There's a distinctive character to his productions, allowing him the freedom to traverse different territory with relative ease. On that last record, finely manicured remnants of Gescom, Orbital, AFX and MMM coalesced into an engaging study of dancefloor rhythmelodics - almost as an answer to anyone still hung up on 'Debiasing'. And he widens his gaze on 'Stochastic Drift', studying the canon and responding with a style that's neither one thing nor the other. Barker's an artist who's acutely aware of his history and isn't afraid to show his work - the references aren't the critical part, it's the process itself that's most important.
'Force of Habit' is a fine example of this; on the surface, it's spot welded remnants of Art of Noise, SND and 808 Mafia, with reverberating glassy stabs, canned chorals, clipped steps and sub rupturing emo-rap bass, but it's still easy to place as Barker's work. Similarly, he harks back to his best-known release with 'Reframing', a track that, in the press release's own words, is "a brittle reimagining of Sasha's eternal prog trance standard 'Xpander'," yet it neither sounds exactly like 'Debiasing' or its stated inspiration. It's the confidence that makes it work - Barker manages to bottle the kinetic euphoria of Sasha's original but leans into the fact that we all know it, fraying the edges with canny emphasis shifts and psychedelic contortions. Even when he tussles with odd tunings on 'Difference and Repetition' and 'Positive Disintegration', it's handled so casually that you almost don't notice it. Playing his fictile xenharmonic synths against dubstep-inspired snare snaps and dubby Dozzy-isms, you get lost in the mood, not snagged on the details.
He keeps on proving the point, gesturing to Squarepusher with the skittering title track, a surge of Roland squiggles, plucked basses and jazzy fills, and Photek's moodiest downtempo moments on the noir-esque 'Fluid Mechanics'. His choice of instrumentation throughout keeps things coherent, and helps him obscure the divide between the main stage and the back room. It's not only removing a beat that can shift the assumed logic of a sound we think we know inside out, it's queering the pitch, skewing the rhythm or inverting the dynamics. By casting our mind back to some of the music we love best, and not just repackaging it but reframing (cough) it, he's gifted us an album that's as accessible as it is experimental. There's no gatekeeping here, and no IDM snobbiness - just pure vibes.
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