Central to Julio Bashmore's work this year has been a certain kind of bass. It's a low-end rumble, like a herd of distant rhino throwing themselves off a cliff in threes. You can hear it on "Ensnare." Boom boom boom. Boom boom boom. But of course it's more than that. There's the searing, single note that checks in and checks out, the soulful vocal sample, flecks of heavily reverbed AOR guitar, the subtle rushes of a stormy wind sitting almost imperceptibly underneath… atmosphere. The fella is a natural at creating it.
He's at it again with the instrumental "Well Wishers," one of the standouts of his recent Essential Mix. It begins with a rising, rapid-fire military drum tattoo and an ambient guitar loop that sounds like it was culled from a long-misplaced Brian Eno session. In comes a twinkling synth melody, that bass boom more subtly deployed this time, and then it's back to those marching drums once more. It all ends in tears, in the most delightful of ways.
Buy Julio Bashmore - Riff Wrath at
  
Tracklist: Julio Bashmore - Riff Wrath
 A Ensnare
B Well Wishers
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