Mood Hut Vinilo y CD

Review: Unmatched textural-ambient vibesetters Mood Hut flaunt their aptitude for the style once again, this time presenting the latest five-track EP from Sydney's current-favourite musical HSP, Cousin. The origin story for HomeSoon, a dearth of synaptic reflections and blissful fuzzouts, goes something like this: on his way back from the New Year's rave, Cousin would perambulate all bleary-eyed, finding himself in the midst of a dense Angophora thicket. What followed was a deluge of plant-like eureka moments - ideas coming thick and fast, taking root in both arborescent and rhizomatic fashion - producing the likes of 'Overpass' and 'Muster', all of which present as ever-moving quasi-electronic organisms.

Review: Sydney-to-Vancouver dance debonair Jack J presents Blue Desert, his second album for Mood Hut. Friends of the label will know J's sound - warming house musical pumps come deep future Balearics - and yet on Blue Desert, we hear the sound tempered by a newfound indie vocal performance by J himself, and that's not to mention its expansive tracklist-trajectory, which, when followed in full, details a head-hung but still hopeful tale of rue and recompense. Of the highlights, opener 'Wrong Again' opts for the true-blue choice of a DX7 organ blearily blent with an open chorded jangle guitar and a sequencer-gated trance line, as J muses on taking a past life too seriously; 'Down The Line' brings impressive Oort clouds of reverse reverb and desert new wave; and 'My Other Mind' even echoes Squeeze, as J continues to lyricise over misunderstandings and perspectival shifts on life. Sight of the dance is not lost, however; 'Pink Shoes (part III)' ends things on a gushing iso-stab, rendering the beach disco in clear-as-day clarity, just over the dunes, at the foreshore's end.

Review: Mood Hut's semi-regular forays into ambient-adjacent territory are always worth checking, largely for their preference for hallucinatory sounds, new age melodies and loved-up textures over academic concepts and po-faced experimentalism. Their latest chill-out room friendly missive, which comes courtesy of Chinese producer Knopha, embraces this approach while also offering nods to his own off-kilter dancefloor productions. So, opener 'Fizz', a languid, post-club shuffler, is followed by the jazz-flecked, opiate ambient soul of 'The Light', and the sun-bright joy of 'Mizu Le Gout', where loose-limbed breakbeats, star-burst melodies and cut-up vocal snippets catch the ear. Arguably best of all, though, is the EP-closing 'Corundrum', where Mediterranean guitar sounds and echoing electronic motifs cluster around a UK garage-influenced ambient house groove.

Review: There are not very many labels that are as successful and revered in electronic music as Mood Hut is, coming up with gem after gem after its inception in 2012. 'Water Seeds' by Oro Azul offers four tracks that range from sub-aquatic, mellow and relaxing to tribal percussiveness that really takes things to another level. A little more chilled out than their normal output, perhaps, but certainly not a massive departure, there are some serious island vibes here.