Steve Hadfield - Ether Awe (2018)

Inspired by a love of the playful electronic sounds of folks like The Black Dog and Plaid, Steve layers intertwining melodies over rich harmonies and precisely crafted breaks, creating songs which are full of character. Highlights include the woozy sway of Chump Strut, shimmering strings and glitchy rhythms in Lucid Nonsense, and the expansive space disco of the closer, The Ends of Invention. In a year which has seen the giants of techno looking back to the softer sounds of 90s IDM, Ether Awe is very much on-brand, but also very distinctively Steve.