#FeatureFriday 19-09-25 Particle Dogs

Particle Dogs, is an album by the artist @particledogs.bsky.social, it’s an album that has been a go-to for me for some while now. It’s smooth upright bass and crunchy drums underpin some really neat melodic keyboard playing and some delicately placed guitar. It is nicely mixed and smartly arranged.

It has elements of Howie B, Money Mark and Death in Vegas. “Dark Lounge”, if you will. It’s cool, smooth, funky, breezy and dark, which seems to contradict, but it does manage to straddle that line like a fine tight rope walker.

It has a lane and stays in it, but it knows where it’s going. It goes slightly jazz, a bit prog and a bit trip hop, but it still feels quite unique. The crunchiness of the recording adds to the “sampled” lofi grittiness that tickles your ears.It feels blown out in that really pleasing way that music like this should. It adds to the crispiness, gives it air, but allows the low end to hit the groove.It also feels like a soundtrack, a bit David Holmes, but that’s no bad thing at all.

This is perfect for early Sunday mornings or a well-executed bank robbery. I totally recommend this album, and you will you will probably see me talking about it online quite a lot.

Go and buy it.

There are two things that I associate with particle dogs self-titled album and both are seemingly random, so bear with me. The first are Japanese Kaiju-movies from the 1960s. In those films, I first encountered a particular style of Lounge music, that had a playful swing and infectious groove; relatively simple music, that was fun and easy to listen to, but had short bursts of intensity and intricate solos.

The second one are the productions of RZA, both as part of the Wu-Tang Clan and his work for movie soundtracks. RZA was able to create music with the same swing and groove, but made it more interesting by mixing in elements that were darker and heavier.

The music from this album hits the same spots for me. The groove is there, as is the swing. But there are these sudden shifts in mood and style, that tell their own short stories. That the album is completely done instrumentally actually aids the listeners imagination in that regard. Overall, particle dogs album manages to be easy to listen to, without being Easy Listening.

It is a pretty involved work, with carefully measured elements that go beyond what the description lo-fi usually implies. I absolutely recommend giving it a spin or three!

Florgoth