Hot Picks: Adwer Blends Cosmic Grooves, Electronica Classics and Psychedelic Soul
- Undrtone Blog
- Jun 17
- 4 min read
We are delighted to welcome Adwer to our Hot Picks series. This producer doesn’t just make music; he engineers emotion through machines.
As the founder of Bolygó Records and a longtime live performer with releases on Global Underground, Bonzai Progressive and Balance, Adwer brings a wide lens to electronic music. His new release is a statement of that, from the celestial roll of ‘Kraut Komet’, made famous by Dixon, to the gospel warmth of ‘Love Set Me Free’ and the genre-blurring glide of ‘Pigeonhole That’.
“My forthcoming EP, “Gospelkrautfunk”, blends inspiration from a wide range of genres, so it’s probably not surprising that I am going to list records that aren’t recently released 4/4 house/techno tracks. In fact, my enthusiasm for listening to newly made music faded quite a bit since I have a hard time finding interesting music in recent times, so this collection is definitely not a ‘what’s in your box’ list but rather a list of tracks that inspired me recently.”
For his Hot Picks, Adwer goes deep. Krautrock influences, hypnotic techno, ambient breaks, psychedelic soul and pure electronica all feature. There’s Floating Points at his trippiest, high-energy fusion from Santana, live Japanese synth-pop from YMO, and a heart-ripping detour through Radiohead and Stevie Wonder.
You’ll hear where his head’s at and why his own productions are so full of texture, colour and soul.
Floating Points - Mirror Pursuit
I have to start with a song from a guy who sits on the top of modern electronica in my opinion. Whatever he does in music, really stands out. I can hear he loves kraut rock just like I do, because this track is a straight out 70s psychedelic kraut rock in a modern rendition.
Wata Igarashi - Interweave
Here’s another electronica maestro - I don’t really listen to techno of high BPM, but his stuff is so musical, hypnotic and smooth that I find it to be the perfect blend of what could be a prime example of ‘hypnotic techno’.
Imperieux - Fena
This guy is a great talent. You don’t see him playing everywhere (unfortunately) but he already nailed some of the finest labels and now he landed on Hessle audio. This track is a pleasant madness laid out on a cool soft breakbeat. Watch this guy!
Radiohead - Exit music (for a film)
OK let’s leave electronica behind for a few songs now, here’s a heart wrenching, vein cutting beauty. What can I say about this song besides that it was the end credits song in the Romeo & Juliet movie (Baz Luhrmann’s version 1996) - if you listen to it and connect it to how Romeo & Juliet’s story ended, it’s extremely moving.
Santana - Bailia mi hermana
I have recently discovered this gem on Santana’s ‘amigos’ record that inherited from a dear family member that passed away and had the most exquisite taste in music. The first few minutes are nothing out of this world, but around 4 minutes it transforms to a full time ecstatic, psychedelic jam of the finest. Perfect fusion among the musicians, disco infused synth strings, great bass groove, wild conga play, total joy!
YMO - Rydeen
Japanese live electronica space disco from 1980, led by the great Ryuichi Sakamoto. I was not aware of this song. The progression and the melody definitely has an asian touch, I love the drums and watched some live recordings. Every time I hear something like this, it makes me go to my instruments and start recording live and avoid editing and quantizing things on the computer, because you want to keep the live feel!
Stevie Wonder - As
Stevie Wonder needs no introduction but this song was nowhere near as successful as others yet it a wonderful piece of music. Great vocals, every musician is on top of their game - keys, percussion, all in perfect harmony. Man, the 70s...the pinnacle of music!
Cobblestone Jazz - 23 seconds live
Mathew Jonson is one of those greats in modern electronic dance music that have a distinctive sound and actually created his own fusion of jazz and minimal techno. This a great ever evolving live recording, with rhodes keys on top, a very cool bass sequence that is most likely a Roland SH-101 and some vocoder vocals smoothly blending in. I have just recently found this record and after almost 30 years, it still sounds awesome!
Squarepusher - Theme from Ernest Borgnine
Back in the 90s I grew up listening to music like these (too), they used to call them ‘IDM’ - as in ‘Intelligent Dance Music’. If you didn’t know it was Squarepusher, you might guess that it is an Aphex Twin track, as they were totally in the same boat. I never liked too noisy stuff, and they loved to use a lot of distortion and glitches, but the heart warming melodies made these songs unforgettable.
Ashra - Deep Distance
I am closing my list with an eternal beauty. Everything about kraut rock, kosmische, etheral, new era, whatever you call it is in there in its best from. Manuel Göttsching was a genius and only music nerds know about him. Not only this was way ahead of its time, released in 1977, to me it is more musical than many Tangerine Dream or Kraftwerk songs. It’s a dream to listen to and I use it very often for a nap.
Adwer’s selections aren’t just tracks, they’re a map of musical obsessions. Each one reflects a different facet of his sound, whether it’s synth-heavy electronica, raw live jams or timeless songwriting.
Go lose yourself in the playlist and get stuck into his latest release. There’s plenty to discover, and nothing to pigeonhole.
Adwer
Comentários