Album Review: The Yellow Collection - Eskimo Recordings

BlackPlastic.co.uk regulars Eskimo are back with their latest compilation in their ongoing series, this one labelled The Yellow Collection. Continuing the gentle progression of recent entries, this new suite of songs feels like a step into deeper, more dancefloor tuned sounds.

Opening with Atella's gorgeous Mechanical Sparrow, as premiered on BlackPlastic.co.uk earlier this year, The Yellow Collection doesn't so much as announce itself as it does slip into the room gently shimmering, softly unveiling its presence. Greece's NTEIBINT teams up with ex-Twin Shadow bassist Russ Manning (here as Rush Midnight) on the rhythmic dream pop of By Your Side. Du Tonc's We Can Hold On gets a previously unreleased dub by German label favourites Satin Jackets, continuing a journey that sees each track become a little deeper than the one before.

By track four things have descended into a far more minimal, dubby territory than you would readily expect from the Belgian label these days... MiddleSkyBoom's Slow With The Run is a deep and percussive number, random noises punctuating the bags of reverb-laden space that the track is successfully constructed around. We also get a punk-funk basslines on the acid-flecked psychedelia of Man Power's Fisky, a track that deviates little over it's tightly wound nine-minute length.

There is little let-up on The Yellow Collection until Horixon puncture the atmosphere with Colours, featuring Else Born - a dramatic disco record the offers just a slight reprieve before Vinny Villbass' The Itch dives straight back into tech-house territory, albeit with a Ballearic disco-tinged break that recalls Tangerine Dream. El Wild, from Mexico's Zombies In Miami, is like the paranoid heat of a midday sun in aural form - cyclical synthesisers, distorted bass and lots of reverb.

It is the penultimate track, James Curd & Turbotito's blissfully removed You Could Be Floating, before things let off properly. The vocal almost audibly sighing at the release of tension amidst slowly birthed electronics. And then Go March close things out with the wonky skate-math-funk of Rise, a muted and funny end to things.

The Yellow Collection is a considerably more wild release than we have had from Eskimo for some time with even their regular artists turning in something more experimental and introspective. It may jostle at the seams, but as tends to be the case the individual quality of everything here is consistently high... The Yellow Collection makes a fine soundtrack to getting baked in the hot summer sun.

The Yellow Collection is available through Eskimo Recordings tomorrow. Stream the track Fisky by Man Power in full below:

Stream: Waiting For You - Sunday

So far up my street, it's practically squeezing through my letterbox... This new track is a blissful shower in warm memories and day dreams. Waiting For You was conjured from the Californian desert by Australian producer Aaron Shanahan, prog-dance band Miami Horror's singer and musical director.

This is the first track to come from Sunday and it's dripping in impatient sensuality - encapsulating the fizzy excitement of love not yet captured. Warm basslines, shifting rhythms, modulated synths and a breathless falsetto make this an absolutely winning debut.

Stream: Sensations (Wheathin Remix) - Elohim

Los Angeles based artist Elohim started getting attention last year with her first two singles She Talks To Much and Xanax, subsequently released as a AA-side 12" through B3SCI Records, and the follow up AA-side Bridge And The Wall and Pigments.

Back now with her debut self-titled EP, Elohim unveiled the lead track Sensations at the end of last month... It was one of those tracks that slipped through the net as a result of general life commitments, but thanks to this great remix from Wheathin I have an excuse to share it anyway. The original is a rowdy epic pop drama - on this new version Wheathin adds a ridiculous EDM build-up and drop... It's not clever, but it is lots of fun.

Elohim's debut EP is out on Friday - you can pre-order it on vinyl here. Check out both the remix and the original track below.

Stream: It All Comes Back To You - Remote Places

Remote Places is the solo project of producer and DJ Justin Geller, best known for his work within the group Pink Skull. That group moved through a number of house-influenced sounds before mutating into a live psych-krautrock outfit, the echoes of which can be heard here.

Debut EP Nights And Weekends was co-produced and recorded with Jeff Zeigler, known for his work with Was On Drugs and Kurt Vile... If It All Comes Back To You is anything to judge things by, the end result is a dreamy krautrock / shoegaze track full of swooping melodies, distortion and yearning.

Stream: Short Truth - Yumi Zouma

We are super close to New Zealand outfit Yumi Zouma's debut full length release Yoncalla, and it's a peach of a record - packed full of exactly the sort of soft-chords and harmonies we have come to expect. Back to tease us with another track, the band have recently unveiled another new track...

Short Truth is a lovely warm and upliftingly weightless track, those trademark muted guitars, warm keys vocal harmonies... Welcome to the sound of summer.