Spatial

The author of the mix is Matt Spendlove, known as Spatial, British electronic music artist and web developer based in London, UK. Spatial sound echoes the haunted urban landscapes and deserted post-rave melancholics of urban metropolis. Spatial creates a coherent mixture of futurist urban genres ranging from UK bass to techno combined with minimalist aesthetics. His monolith sound resonates well with modern urban landscapes. It captures the essential energy and weight of bass music, but at the same time develops the subtle atmospheres. Spatial sound morphed and developed during the years due to a wide variety of influences and constant collaborations and interactions. Maybe this is the reason why it is so hard to define.

In late 2008 Spatial released a limited 10” on his own Infrasonics imprint. Spatial’s subsequent two 10-inches were equally met with critical acclaim. Infrasonics label continued to develop and release works by other artists. Spatial is also famous for his diverse and energetic dj sets mixing bass with more diverse, atmospheric and abstract material. He also performed as such notable festivals as Unsound, Club Transmediale, Free Rotation.

Records and connections

His mix for Secret Thirteen is quite a diverse affair showcasing artist’s diversity and eclectic influences. The mix travels a bit further away from bass centric styles and presents Spatial’s art in a really eclectic context. Starting from an unidentified field recording of Romanian wedding it travels across diverse multicultural paths through various moods and sonic techniques, futurist bass and strange and hidden gems from the past. Here we encounter such variety of artists ranging from kosmische hauntology of Data 70 to psychedelics of Greg Boring, forward-thinking sound manipulations of Basil Kirchin or even avant-folk of The Shadow Ring. The mix nicely connects these strange artifacts with modern wonderings by Ekoplekz, hazy reggae infused lo-fi drones of Sun Araw and Spatial’s own experiments thus representing the relations and influences of different genres and generations. The mix nicely plays with futurism and past, organic and synthetic, hypnotic and darker moods and presents a coherent dichotomy.

This selection is recorded to promote the release by Spatial’s another project called The Primitives. On the 27th of October the project released its DVD/12” on Broken20 imprint. The release was an interdisciplinary affair created by using custom written software. It is a bunch of experimental films made using the system, a 12″ of audio interpretations by Spatial and some friends and the software itself for people to play with and the source code for people to hack on.