ROYKSOPP - SHORES OF EASY

The wait is finally over! Royksopp's ambient techno epic "Shores Of Easy" is finally getting an official release!

Eight years is an eternity in the realm of pop music and culture. While genres and pop music and hip-hop are always shifting and changing, perhaps no genre moves quite as quickly as electronic music. One minute, glitched-out Monsterstep may be all the rage, and the next season lo-fi Balearic house is inescapable, much to the confusion and frustration of DJs and producers who may have built their career on a particular style or sound.

Listening to a techno track from eight years ago is like performing a fear of sonic archaeology. It can feel like listening to lost relics of bygone eras, like digging through dusty white label disco 12"s from the late '70s in search of gold. It's like a time capsule and time machine, both, transporting you back to the worlds and cultures from which those sounds sprung.

ROYKSOPP - SHORES OF EASY

It's a bit of a miracle that "Shores Of Easy," the most recent single to be issued from Royksopp's The Lost Tapes, sounds as fresh and timely as it does. If anything, the lush, warm New Age synth pads, classy minimal 4/4 kicks, lo-fi synths, and burbling, acidic basslines sound more relevant than ever. Did Royksopp have a time machine or crystal ball back in 2011 when they first debuted the single back in 2011?

"Shores Of Easy" is pure joy for the heads and crate diggers out there. It's an epic 14-minute ambient banger, slowly evolving, like watching a flower unfurl in slow motion. It sounds similar to some of the recent explorations from Underworld's Drift series, showcasing seasons producers willing to experiment and explore.

It's beyond thrilling to hear "Shores Of Easy" get a proper release, slightly polishing its sterling kick drums and electro-buzzing basslines, while still remaining attractively gauzy and fogged out, which was part of what made the single so appealing in the first place.

We Are: The Guard highly, highly encourage you to throw "Shores Of Easy" on some good headphones or, even better still, in your progressive ambient DJ sets. It's a time machine, we're just not sure if it's taking us backward or forwards.

J. Simpson occupies the intersection between criticism, creativity, and academia. Based out of Portland, Or., he is the author of Forestpunk, an online journal/brand studying the traces of horror, supernatural, and the occult through music, fashion and culture. He plays in the dreamfolk band Meta-Pinnacle with his partner Lily H. Valentine, with whom he also co-founded Bitstar Productions, a visual arts collective focused on elevating Pop Culture to High Art.