SHIFT Ft. Lusine, Arms and Sleepers & Yppah

From his early releases as Lusine onward, Jeff McIlwain’s electronic explorations make up one of the more diverse discographies of the past decade and a half. Seattle-based producer Jeff McIlwain, aka Lusine, returns with his 9th full-length record, Long Light, marking twenty years since he first joined the Ghostly International roster. A cited influence for myriad electronic artists including London’s Loraine James and others, Lusine is known for visceral, kinetically-curious music that fuses techno, pop, and experimental composition. In recent years, McIlwain has pushed his craft skyward with more collaborative, song-forward work. Long Light shines the throughline; his signature looping patterns and textures are dynamic yet minimalist as ever. Structurally straightforward, tight, and bright, the material radiates as the most direct in his catalog, featuring vocal contributions from Asy Saavedra, Sarah Jaffe, and Sensorimotor collaborators Vilja Larjosto and Benoît Pioulard. Lusine found his sound early on, but he’s never stopped pushing and pulling at its potential, patiently deconstructing the distractions and solving the puzzles. With Long Light, a laser-focused, process-driven artist reaches an exceptionally satisfying level of clarity and immediacy.

Formed in 2006 in Boston, Massachusetts and now based in Berlin, Germany, Arms and Sleepers is the electronic trip-hop project of producer Mirza Ramic (formerly a duo with Max Lewis), who has subsequently released 14 full-length albums and 20 EPs of glitched-out grooves that take as much inspiration from leftfield hip-hop experimentalism as they do from the slowburn ambience and panoramic euphoria of contemporary post-rock. His latest album ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ (released in March 2024 on Pelagic Records) is a breathtaking aural account that charts the life-changing journey of being forced out of your home over four distinct, musical sections. An arresting exploration of the artist's personal experience of fleeing war-torn Bosnia in the early 1990s, the tragic death of his father in that conflict and how the war in Ukraine echoes these difficult memories, ‘What Tomorrow Brings’ is the breathtaking new full-length release from international artist, producer and prolific creative Arms and Sleepers.

Joe Corrales Jr. aka Yppah has forged a career marked by ethereality and dynamism. Brought up on equal parts My Bloody Valentine and hip-hop, he has utilized a number of instruments and techniques in forging his place in the uplifting (yet firmly grounded) world his music inhabits. Yppah embraces hardware in a big way, experimenting with gear constantly while writing to find the best suited combination for his workflow. Yppah has released 4 full-length album on the globally celebrated record label Ninja Tune, and has been featured in films (21), video games (Alone In The Dark), and television series (House, CSI).