Great album of sunny electronic music that’s pretty chill, even when it’s upbeat. Good variety of tempos, but maintains a really cohesive feel. Lots of layered samples, synths, and drum machines, occasional glitchiness, but nothing that feels jarring. Well constructed, but not fussy. Most of these songs would also work fine in an eclectic non-electronic set. No bad tracks in the bunch. Also, one of my new favorite album titles.

RIYL: your favorite glitch-hop or southern rap producer dreaming of a beach vacation

FCC clean (no lyrics)

1. upbeat. bright synths and drum machines and bitcrushed videogame snares. heavy kick comes in for the last 0:45. strings in the last few bars. 2:25
2. glitchy female vocal, ticky claps and cymbals. heavy kick comes shuffling in. beat gets going just after 1:00, but stays mellow. nice thick bassline, good strut. bright but contained synth streaks enter around halfway (and get shimmery later). beat drops out for a while around 2/3 in. bubbly distorted bells towards the end. 3:58
3. upbeat, propulsive. short repeated female vocal phrase. layers of glowing synth (some discreet notes, some washes). percussion gradually gets filled in more throughout the song (starting with kicks and cowbells, then some ticky cymbals, etc). breakdown and rebuild around halfway, takes its time instead of all crashing back in after 2 or 4 bars. subtle found sound samples throughout. 5:09
4. slowly emerging filtered synth, subtle choral pads. bells and other ringing around the halfway mark. spinning echoing synth. loping beat kicks in towards the end, as does some meowing. not gloomy, despite the title. 2:08
5. chill digital tropicalia. slow. echoed vocal samples and chimes. echo gets heavier and folds back in on itself a bit. new rising synth just after 1:30, 4/4 drums slowly enter around 1:45. builds to something bigger than you’d have expected from the start but chills back out around around the 2 min mark. 2:57
6. bright synths and vocal samples, but over a heavy rolling bassline, the sort of heavy rhythmic percussionless thing pangaea or untold might do. builds slowly till halfway, then trades heavy bassline for dirty south 808 drums and buzzy glowing synth. 3:37
7. mellow bright synth notes and windswept background ambience. Sounds almost like a Squarepusher interlude (or Boards of Canada on their meds, i.e. minus the sinister undertones). 2:31
8. echoing glowing synth and claps. chopped female syllables. space invaders or pacman sound, and the beat comes in just before 1:00. beat gets yanked back out just before 1:30, but some hand drums get added. same halting beat comes and goes throughout. 2:26
9. more mellow digital tropicalia. echoed syllables, hazy steel drums, bassline. percussive elements slowly added, starting with bells and claps. beat never gets heavy, but feels like it starts to take off just before 2:00 (possibly due to the entry of a new synth line). 3:37
10. bubbling buzzy bassline and pleasantly fuzzed out overdriven melody. swooping wordless vocal samples. videogame bleeps off and on starting around 1:15. occasional touches of southern hip-hop rhythm programming, but never goes full tilt on that. explores chiptune tendencies more than anything else on here. 3:13
11. slow rolling southern hip-hop 808s, sampled/chopped oohs and aahs, sparse bright melody. lush synth pads. ocean waves way in the background starting around 1:15. other shuffling percussive elements enter throughout. 4:14
12. opens with synth horns? enough smearing and echo that it’s hard to tell what was being emulated, but whatever it is, it has a really nice shimmer. clicking bottle caps and hand drums enter just before 1:00. feels like it’s always on the verge of getting propulsive. beat kicks in around the midpoint, but doesn’t feel pushy. winds down and fades out the way it came in. 3:40

recommended: 11, 9, 3, 6