Willem van der Ploeg, hailing from the Netherlands, is a DJ, producer, and co-founder of the label The Something Something, alongside Rutger Paulusse. Willem has been a long-time follower of ASIP, often supporting our mixes and asking for track IDs—something that always piques my curiosity and often leads to unexpected finds. So I was delighted to stumble across another amazing cave of DJ sets through The Something Something’s Red Light Radio show, offering up sessions from recognizable...

  Two familiar names step up for our next isolated mix, with a highly conceptual approach that matches their new (and similarly conceptual) collaborative album, ‘Démarrage’. I’m unsure where I would start if I were to create an album based on a love of cycling. Weirdly enough, it wouldn’t be the first electronic album to do so (See Kraftwerk’s, Tour De France, of course), but it’s obviously a big enough inspiration to spur electronic producers David Douglas and Applescal. After listening to...

  The Deep Breakfast mix series has slowly (quite quickly compared to my isolatedmix efforts!) become one of the greatest ambient-leaning mix series around, pulling in some of the finest curators and artists to grace our small world. From well-known artists and DJs to passionate music collectors, it seems Francesco, the curator, is intent on hosting a series truly meant for every corner of the ambient spectrum. The name of the mix series gives you an idea of what to expect, and for my...

  A new mix for the brilliant Monument platform, and their new series ‘Waves’ which looks to feature more of the ambient side of things, rather than the deep techno world they are known for, if the first of the series by Chris SSG is any indication. After our label showcase mix I did for them a few years back, I was extremely pleased to return to Monument again and decided on a new approach for #2. Taking inspiration from the podcast series’ title, I aimed to create a mix that focused on...

  As someone who enjoys the process of putting together mixes- specifically more conceptual ambient leaning mixes- I often think about how I would approach playing an event designed for sleep. I’m yet to play a set like this live, but I did tackle something similar in the Portals series by roughly mixing styles that aligned to specific sleep stages (eg, REM, deep etc). But in person, sleep is never as predictable as hypothetical sleep stages in a recorded mix, let alone the idea of a room...

  As with all past ‘Reflection’ year-end mixes, I start with a collection of albums, EPs, and compilations I have enjoyed over the past year. Through the process of compiling a mix, tracks are selected from this extensive collection. This ultimately means many of my favorite tracks and albums are often omitted in this process, due to the organic process of compiling a mix, things don’t fit, or fall by the wayside. There are many albums I had on high rotation missing from this mix, but I have...

  ASIP is going on fifteen years of existence now (as a website and blog at least), and a few things have remained a constant over the years helping keep us going. One of them has been the support of Juno and in particular, Milo Bragg, who was the first distributor to take us on as a label back in 2013. As many labels and musicians will know, it’s pretty hard to get your start in this world, and Juno can be held up as one of only a few who have kept an open ear to our style of music and given...

  The Observatory is a new mix series curated by Jay Keegan and has already featured a few of my favorite artists and DJs since its recent inception. I can tell that Jay has an ear for great sound and curators, so I’m excited to see where the series goes in the future and was honored to play a part in its path forward. I took the opportunity to spotlight a few unreleased gems in this mix, as well as two very exciting ASIP releases in the works… Recent contributions have come from the likes...

  We’re entering a busy half of the year for the label, and while we don’t always use the isolatedmix series to help tee up what’s in store, Alex Albrecht also happens to be a brilliant selector and curator of many great mixes over the years. Yes, you did read that right, Alex will soon be gracing ASIP with a new release, to be announced in full very shortly and available at the end of September. We had hoped to get this mix out a little earlier in the year but life got in the way for us...

  We are very excited to welcome Mary Yalex to the label soon, and her upcoming release set to be announced in August. Mary’s work has appeared on respected labels such as Muzan Editions, map.ache’s ‘Kann’’, Carsten Jost’s ‘Dial’, Sound as Language, and her own label, Yalex Recordings. Her productions have spanned various ambient and experimental styles, and I am very excited to present a new album distilling her years of hard work into her sharpest vision yet. There’s no better way to get to...

  Inspired by the greatest years. Tranquility of the highest order.A mix of music taken from, and inspired by the most influential years of electronic and ambient music - the 90’s. astrangelyisolatedplace · ASIP - Tranquility Listen on Soundcloud, or the ASIP Podcast. Download MP3 01. MLO - Shadows of Life and Thought (2021) 02. Merrin Karras - unreleased 03. Stryke - Introspection Part 1 (1994) 04. Glide - Space Van (1997) 05. Solar Quest - Save The Whale (1994) 06. Namlook & Montana -...

  One of the very few known labels emerging from South Korea and going from strength to strength recently, Oslated has become a consistent outlet for quality deep techno and ambient-leaning electronic music. Helmed by Jongmin Lee, the label, and its sublabel Huinali keep a busy calendar between them, push a variety of artists both new and known in our small circles. Oslated, also keep a great guest mix series going to help fuel the collective inspiration. Segue, Inhmost, Doltz, Earthen Sea,...

  Well, a whole nine months since our last isolatedmix, we return in style… Scottish producer Lord Of The Isles has been high on rotation for me for about ten years now, with a string of electronic EPs across labels such as Mule Musiq, Permanent Vacation, Phonica and ESP Institue. Never guessing where he was going to push next, Neil has remained a bit of an enigma in style over the years and more recently, has captured hearts with an emotional, Poem-infused EP on Whities (more on that below)...

Our annual showcase of individual tracks from ASIP's 2022 label releases and a special continuous DJ mix of this year's music from todos.After providing 2021's compilation mix, our esteemed journeyman, todos takes the reigns again to interpret this year's label releases. Containing at least one track from each of our releases along with many snippets and samples from others, todos weaves a tapestry that somehow manages to traverse ASIP's potentially most varied year to date.From the intricate...

Curated by Alexis Le-Tan and featuring a host of brilliant, inspirational labels, it’s an honor to be invited to be a part of the growing Oddity Radio collective. The ASIP label profile is now live on the site, including a playlist of tracks from the label so far, which can be added to your listening rotation on the station, a short interview, and an Inspirations mix by yours truly (cue biggest picture of me on the internet).Oddity asks each label contributor to submit an inspirations mix,...

  Oslated is a label collective from South Korea, often found presenting lovely deep meditative techno from the likes of Doltz, Saphileaum, Launaea, Javier Marimon, and many more personal faves. They also host a mix series, which has previously featured some great contributions by many faces readers of ASIP will recognize, so it was a pleasure to be asked to contribute a mix. I don’t have too much to say on this one, but it moves through some very specific chapters with a common theme...

  Not many producers can create new aliases after 10+ years and still manage to drop something completely unexpected and refreshing. Peter Rogers’ Wardown project did just that in 2020, debuted on the respected Blu Mar Ten label, the self-titled album found admirers from a cross-section of music styles; spanning Jungle, Drum’n Bass and a strong atmospheric element. Wardown / Wardown was consequently one of my most played and admired albums of the year (finding a sweet spot in the Reflection...

  "Ambient as interesting as it is interesting"The term Power Ambient is yes, another attempt at putting a badge or genre to a wide-encompassing range of music stylistically, but it’s one that I have often gravitated towards amongst many others when describing a particular style of music we are dealing with here.When it comes to a spectrum of Ambient music styles, I’m more often than not on the ‘lean in’ side of things, than the ‘lean back’. It’s easy to throw up Brian Eno’s definition of...

  A big thanks to Ed Isar for inviting me to contribute a mix to his Rinse FM show. Ed is behind the Musique Pour La Danse label (recently reissuing Coil and rEAGENZ albums amongst others), as well as the brilliant Tursiops label. Below is the text sent along to accompany the show and introduce the rough idea behind it.I'm a father to two young boys, so finding time to dedicate to a vinyl mix is tough, but I found myself inspired to get behind the decks late one evening and see what would...

  Our latest isolatedmix comes from Mark Nelson, who as Pan•American, or as part of Labradford or even Anjou, has garnered relative cult status amongst the ambient and experimental lifers and tape community. Forming a big part of the Kranky label history from its very first release, Mark recently returned with a new album after a three-year hiatus, and the mature, refined instrumentalism on The Patience Fader is a subtle reminder of the quality Mark has retained over the years - quite an...

  To help continue the much-needed support for the people of Ukraine, we have produced a compilation from one of our favorite Ukrainian-based netlabels, Energostatic Records. Released as part of our Portals deep dive series, the feature includes a remaster of specifically curated tracks, in both individual and mix form. These tracks are available on the ASIP Bandcamp page as Name Your Price, with all proceeds going to Save The Children and their specific activities supporting Ukraine at this...

  After a superb debut album on the esteemed Silent Season in 2015, Alex Moya, aka Refracted has remained in high gear and top of mind when taking stock of some of the best deep techno producers of the past few years. Moving from his expansive tribal rhythms on ‘Through The Spirit Realm’, Alex has gone on to release a number of EPs and created his own output, Mind Express, whilst also becoming a sought-after live act with appearances at Parel-lel Festival and closing the legendary Tresor,...

  Our first isolatedmix of the new year arrives intently for this moment in time, as Chris SSG captures a tapestry of ambient across an extended ~2hrs, to welcome in the new year. As the MNML SSGS co-founder, Chris SSG is likely no stranger to those who have been in the online periphery (or legacy should I say) of ambient and techno forums over the past 15+ years. Coincidentally the MNML SSGS blog came to an end, ten years ago which makes this mix strangely appropriate to be featured here now...

  As with all past ‘Reflection’ year-end mixes, I start with a collection of albums I have enjoyed over the year. Through the process of compiling a mix that flows well, songs are whittled down and selected from this collection. This means many of my favorite tracks and albums are often omitted in the process, due to the need for them to fit in a mix that comes together as organically as possible. As I say every year, this isn’t a definitive ‘best-of’ list, but a selection of just some of my...