Germ in a Population of Buildings

by upsammy

supported by

felisapascual Square to sphere

New Music Jason This album is my Feature Pick for this week (04/29-05/05/23) on my New Music page:

newmusicjason.wordpress.com/2023/05/05/the-new-music-im-listening-to-at-a-moments-notice-this-week-april-29-may-5-2023/ Favorite track: Green Lung.

more...

	/

Streaming + Download

Includes unlimited streaming via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

Purchasable with gift card

€12 EUR or more
Record/Vinyl + Digital Album
Due to production production delays, this vinyl will not ship out before January 2024.

Includes unlimited streaming of Germ in a Population of Buildings via the free Bandcamp app, plus high-quality download in MP3, FLAC and more.

ships out within 7 days

Purchasable with gift card

€27 EUR or more

1.	Being is a Stone 03:24	buy track
2.	Constructing 03:02	buy track
3.	Ergo Dynamic Tree 02:58	buy track
4.	Green Lung 03:11	buy track
5.	Germ in a Population of Buildings 01:33	buy track
6.	Patterning 03:54	buy track
7.	Asphalt Flows 04:24	buy track
8.	Soft Sand 02:48	buy track
9.	Square to Sphere 03:08	buy track
10.	Metro Snake Whispers 04:52	buy track

about

On her sophomore album "Germ in a Population of Buildings”, upsammy moves through her surroundings with the curiosity of a place-bending landscape architect. The album is rooted in her interest for ambiguous environments in constant shift, and the feeling of discovering strange patterns in different ecosystems. Often, the Amsterdam-based artist finds herself zooming in and out beyond a place's most recognizable surface features to inhabit the microscopic and gigantic. Gathering field recordings and evocative environmental sounds, she shapes this source material into vibrating electro-acoustic rhythms and unstable, psychedelic textures.

upsammy's debut album, 2020's critically-acclaimed "Zoom", was praised for its careful reimagining of IDM, evolving vignettes that nodded towards the dancefloor without being shackled to its rigid set of rules. On "Germ in a Population of Buildings" her process has evolved considerably; the skeletal trace of IDM is still present but it's been trapped in amber, allowing her unique sonic landscape to develop organically. 'Being is a Stone' is a proof of concept in many ways, layering upsammy's contorted voice in rickety patterns beneath a lattice of fragile rhythms and faintly melancholy synths. It's never immediately obvious where the sounds are coming from - a hiccuping beat might be glass cracking underfoot, and larger pulses could be wet concrete, rusted iron or bent plastic. As the sounds develop they morph into each other, demolishing what came before and building on top of the ornamental wreckage.

On the dynamic 'Constructing', upsammy's sound design fluxes through hyperactive bass music structures, abstracting expectations at every turn. Often her sounds are whisper quiet, rattling and vibrating until heavier masonry drops and disrupts the structure. And when discernible rhythms subside into the background, like on the album's eerie title track, they become almost illusory, morphing between the real world and the electronic. upsammy's processed voice works like a bridge between these realms, snaking between stark, whimsical melodies on 'Patterning', arching from AutoTuned detachment into cooing, dreamy intimacy. By considering the harmonies between each location she's visited, upsammy has been able to build a unique topology that's an uncanny digital amalgam of her lived experience. It's a thoughtful alternative in an era more concerned with flatting the landscape than crumpling it and examining its peaks and troughs.

credits

released May 5, 2023

Mastered by Rashad Becker
Mixed by James Ginzburg
Artwork by Jonathan Castro Alejos and Tharim Cornelisse

license

about

upsammy Netherlands

As electricity blossoms and leafs glisten, upsammy creates interpretative space, cleverly paradoxical in its concurrent comfort and desolation.

upsammy.com

contact / help

Contact upsammy

Streaming and
Download help

Redeem code

Report this album or account

If you like upsammy, you may also like:

ITLP09 - Pool
by Skee Mask

supported by 49 fans who also own “Germ in a Population of Buildings”

just absolute braintickling soundscapes. love it! limecrabbe
go to album
Workaround
by Beatrice Dillon

supported by 42 fans who also own “Germ in a Population of Buildings”

Very classy collection of warm, subtle, languid grooves meticulously crafted with a pointillist attention to detail. Petship
go to album
hybtwibt?
by Space Afrika

supported by 37 fans who also own “Germ in a Population of Buildings”

i haven't been through what you've been through, but i want to understand everett
go to album
Where Moss Grows
by Hidden Rivers

featured on Bandcamp Radio Jun 23, 2015
go to album
Plips
by Icky Reels

Icky Reels takes instrumental hip-hop dynamics to the next level, his glitched-out beatscapes back-lit by an unsettling ambient flicker. Bandcamp New & Notable Nov 3, 2021
go to album
I K H L A S
by FAUXE

The Singaporean producer samples and recontextualizes Malaysian music with love, care, and just a touch of irreverence. Bandcamp Album of the Day Jun 28, 2018
go to album
Cocoon Crush
by Objekt

supported by 32 fans who also own “Germ in a Population of Buildings”

This album feels like the soundtrack for an exploration of a jungle planet full of sentient plants and insectoid aliens. Objekt's use of reverb and negative space creates the sense that sounds are whizzing past you, speeding towards you, and being flung up into space. josh epps
go to album