John Beltran has joined a cult. Under the moniker Placid Angles (one of the most typo’d wantlist entries on Discogs), Beltran has brought his ambient and breakbeat-driven techno alter ego to Kalahari Oyster Cult, the Dutch home of dreamy and esoteric electronic music. Best known for the early ’90s release Aquatic and the late ’90s Peacefrog album The Cry, Placid Angles was the home of wildly experimental sounds that didn’t fit under what people knew or thought they knew when the saw “John Beltran” on the vinyl sticker. Now it’s almost consumed his identity, with albums on Len Faki’s Figure and Nic Tasker’s AD 93 label just over the last few years.
A Detroit Summer is a four track EP that briefly touches down at Detroit Metro Airport and then launches into the stratosphere. Beltran is juggling deeply emotive and deeply elevating material with apparent ease. “Who We Are” is atmospheric dope, high on black azure and white smoke, reminiscent in effect to vintage Underground Resistance tracks like “Jupiter Jazz.” “Sun’s Poem” is a strutting, uptempo stunner in the same vein. “You’re Becoming Everything I Hoped You Would” is breathtaking — a helix of icy vocals and warm vocals and a trilling acid lullaby that seems to answer them both. This one is just pure heart.
⚪️ A Detroit Summer Tracklisting
Placid Angles: A Detroit Summer EP (Kalahari Oyster Cult / 12" Vinyl + Digital)
1. Who We Are (06:45)
2. Sun's Poem (08:56)
3. You're Becoming Everything I Hoped You Would (08:43)
4. That Feeling Again (08:05)
⚪️ Disclosure Statement
This record was not submitted as a promo.
⚪️ Previous Coverage
✳ New Music: Ebbs’N’Flow debut on Kalahari Oyster Cult with “Bunch of Amateurs” (2024)
✳ New Music: Fantastic Man drops “Alltogethernow” for Kalahari Oyster Cult (2022)
✳ New Music: Sonic blotter from Liquid Earth & Kalahari Oyster Cult (2022)
✳ New Music: John Beltran remixes “Windows” from C-Pull & Natalia Kissoon (2021)
✳ New Music: John Beltran is Going Back to Bahia (2020)
✳ New Music: Twisted, Psychedelic Grooves on Flora FM’s Chaos Light (2019)
5 Mag Issue 223
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