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Esbe is an multi-genre music producer from Los Angeles, California. He
is known for his atmospheric instrumental production which incorporates
sound elements from extensive use of jazz and soul samples. His latest
release, Bloomsday, is a collection of 19 essential instrumentals.
“If you were to grab tracks at random from Bloomsday, you might not
have guessed that those songs came from the same album. However,
when you listen to the album in the way that it was arranged, it will all
start to make sense, and you can start to hear how Esbe connects the
dots from one song to the next. Esbe draws from a lot of different styles
and influences, whether it be soul, hard bop, cool jazz, bossa nova,
boom bap, down tempo, jungle, house, or drum and bass, just to name
a few. This might sound like he’s unfocused or trying to do too much with
his music, but Esbe has a good sense for not overcrowding his individual
tracks. Each song might bring in a couple of different elements, but he
keeps his arrangements clean, with just the right amount of interesting
samples to build from, and the patience to let them unfold at a steady
pace, without forcing anything. There are plenty of obscure samples that
you won’t place, but he also manages to pick a few key spots to drop
some well-known samples, but then re-purposes them in interesting
ways in which to give them new life.
Bloomsday will take more than one listen to really sink in, but it will
eventually sneak up on you and reveal its cleverness in really subtle and
interesting ways. Esbe has a large musical vocabulary, but he also knows
when to pick his spots, piling it on thick at key moments, and backing
away at others, giving the listener space to breath and soak in all the
different musical ideas floating around here.” - scratchedvinyl.com |
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