Loci Records has an extensive, if relatively quiet history of showcasing a distinctly grounded, featherweight approach to electronic music; spearheaded by Emancipator, their roster and catalog follows in the footsteps of numerous trip-hop, downtempo, and electronica progenitors. Their latest release comes in the form of the Nantes-based producer Spectateur’s Nocturne LP, providing a poignet soundtrack to an evening's journey. Implementing various musical modalities that fluidly evolve throughout the album, Spectateur demonstrates a complete control over a diverse use of instrumentation, ranging from ethereal percussion, to licks and melodies reminiscent of the Fertile Crescent, to infectious call-and-response bass lines, invoking a myriad of emotions along the way.

Settling into Nocturne begins with the easy egress into “About Last Night”. It lulls you in with a juxtaposition of airy keys and rhythmic humming, gradually giving way to intentional dissonance that creates the tension lines of the track. Slowing only for a moment, the track meanders and builds toward a crescendo dash towards the conclusion of the composition. The album progresses onto a lighter path with tracks like “Inner Jungle” and “Lazy Boy”, featuring determined head-nod rhythms and laid-back house archetypes that both play off of instrumental dialogue and compositional whimsy. “Inner Jungle” cruises at chilled-out speeds, fusing a grab-bag of primal animal samples and syncopated 808 phrases. In contrast, “Lazy Boy” fuses bass guitar plucks, six–string licks, and clavinet runs into a jubilant dance-floor party. Wrapping up Nocturne’s journey from dusk to dawn, “Under The Sun” allows the listener some final moments of introspection as sweeping bass tones, a snare-centric beat, and lightly arranged cymbals mimic that feeling of catching the sun rise over in the distance, and those first salient moments of sun-touched skin.

Spectateur’s Nocturne is a fresh perspective on electronic music’s softer edge, putting the focus on clear, clean songwriting and tight dance-floor fundamentals. While there’s no telling when the next Spectateur release or performance will be seeing the light of day, we highly recommend that you dive into his five previous releases, or his bombastic Stereo Utopia project, to hold you over in the meantime.

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