Seasonal Affected Beats — 2°
Off late, when on my long and storied travels through the far and near reaches of the internet, I’ve been particularly partial to thoughtful and thought-provoking electronic music and jazz (I’m really excited to share this jazz radio channel from Japan, but that’s for another day, probably tomorrow). At the intersection of these sounds, although admittedly way closer to electronic music than anything resembling jazz, is Seasonal Affected Beats’s EP 2°.
New Delhi-based jazz drummer Tarun Balani’s debut EP under this electronic music moniker, 2° is 20 minutes of carefully crafted, moving electronica; what used to somewhat condescendingly be called ‘intelligent dance music’ or IDM. In this interview with the Hindu, Balani talks about wanting to make electronic music that isn’t necessarily dance floor music. Says he:
“I think because I come from a background of jazz improvised music, I wanted my output in electronic music to be different. I didn’t want it to be consumed as dance floor electronic music. Hence, all these topics such as mental health, climate change and digital existentialism… all of these things have been playing on my mind for one-and-half-years.”
The album, needless to say, seems quite prescient in this summer of face-masks and layoffs. It’s a particularly poignant listen. I highly recommend it.
You can find it on Apple Music, Spotify, and YouTube. You can also check out the video for album highlight, Let The Light In featuring KAVYA here.
Check out my releases here.
Wonder what the point of music is on the sixth of March, twenty twenty two. Wonder if it serves the same purpose it served fifty, eighty, one hundred, one thousand years ago. Maybe six thousand years ago, that age’s Leonard Cohen wrote wryly of the migration patterns of wildebeest. I’ve been working on new music over the past half year. Here’s a pleasant house cover of the Cure’s Just Like Heaven.