Release Date: Oct 19, 2010
Genre(s): Electronic, Techno, Garage, Experimental Techno, Dubstep, Glitch
Record label: Ninja Tune
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San Francisco-based Brendan Angelides has been recording under the name Eskmo for just over ten years now, and it's interesting to see that while his dedication to beat-based electronic music remains strong, he seems to have lost all interest in making anybody want to dance. In fact, on his eponymous debut album he seems fascinated by texture above all else; there are beats -- tons of them -- but they defy you to dance more than they invite you to do so, and they frequently seem to be playing a supporting role behind a bewilderingly complex array of glitches, taps, twangs, thwacks, and drips. Consider "Cloudlight," for example, which blends microscopic pitter-patters, drops of water, vocals, and a bottomless dubstep beat.
Brendan Angelides, aka Eskmo, has been gathering steam as an electronic musician for over a decade, but he's really come into his own in the past couple of years. In 2009 he released the deservedly well-received singles "Hypercolor" and "Agnus Dei" on his own Ancestor label, and then he scored one of the best remixes on Bibio's The Apple and the Tooth, a molten vamp on "Dwrcan". This led to an invitation to perform with Nosaj Thing at one of Flying Lotus' Brainfeeder sessions, to working with Amon Tobin as Eskamon, and to releasing his own tracks on Warp and Planet Mu.
Eskmo is the recording alias of San Franciscan Brendan Angelides. He has been recording for over a decade, but this eponymous effort is his first album. He has also collaborated with drum & bass/post-jazz hero Amon Tobin under the name Eskamon (get it?). Angelides has indicated that the album format has allowed him to expand beyond the dance floor, and really express himself.
A hotter property than that chilly moniker might immediately imply. Adam Kennedy 2010 In both the US and UK, the west coast has geographically wrestled control of an ever-expanding universe billowing from the post-dubstep mushroom cloud. This side of the Atlantic, Bristol edges ascendancy. The latest to step up to the plate from an already regal line of Californian kings, meanwhile, is San Francisco-based soloist Brendan ‘Eskmo’ Angelides.