Two album’s I’ve been listening to lately, both from Kompakt, both minimal in form but sonically lush, both in heavy competition for my listening time:

The Field - From Here We Go Sublime

The first chance I had to give this album a good listen was on the drive back from Vancouver BC after a long night of raving to Ed Banger’s disto-disco head wreckers. Short on sleep, running late, and sublimely hungover, this record was the perfect balm.

The Field’s soft synths, delicately treated vocals, and ambling structures recall Orbital at times, but the looping guitars and nodding downbeats of “A Paw In My Face” are something else entirely. It’s an easy album to get lest in. The Field’s tracks are repetitive and lulling—rhythms ripple and tones wash up, and though the songs are deep, there’s little breaking their flat, oceanic surfaces.

Gui Boratto - Chromophobia

Unlike the Field, Gui Boratto does not trade in hazy tones and distant beats. His restrained beats and pinging, detuned synths are sharp and clear. There’s more negative space in his compositions than in the Field’s, too, and less synth padding. Boratto manages to align and realign his spare elements in constantly shifting patterns, ranging from humid funk (“Shebang” and “Chromophobia”) to twitchy techno (“Mr Decay”, “Gate 7”) to a little Orbital ambience of his own on “The Blessing”.

This isn’t an album I would suggest for hangovers. It’s too kinetic and too demanding to work as a soothing background. This album is for the drive to the club, maybe the club itself.