Reflections - Frameworks (2023)

Ideated from: some recent releases I’ve been spinning

Frameworks is a Brit named Matthew Brewer. Previous releases have featured a lot of the same general sounds–medium fast tempo, loping drum tracks, some synths and various samples other instruments. None of it had leapt out at me, but I have had them in rotation over the years.

This release, on the other hand, is a steep step up. It’s a very personal record, he says, inspired by the pandemic and his infant son’s health challenges. But even though it has some serious pathos running underneath it, the music is transcendent and calm.

It’s sonically pretty minimal, but makes the most of its small palette. A handful of tracks have vocalists featured but the really transcendent stuff is the simplest.

Tracks I Liked

Circles - A bouncy house track with a soothing vocal loop

No Time - percussive synth lines and a slighly frantic countermelody

Ports - more abstract and ambient at the beginning, dropping into a similar beat to the other tracks eventually