brandon kim

ICYMI 🌿🍥: This one’s about creating organic ecosystems for your creative infrastructure. While Polygonia (@_polygonia_ ) makes music in the box, she fills her studio with things that cannot be digital. The work lives all that much more because the room lives first. Fill your studio with things that need you back, things that vibrate and grow and refuse to be compressed into a file format, then sit down and press record. If you haven’t seen it yet, head over to the substack. ____________________________________________________________________________ Stay tuned for the next one with the legendary multi-hyphenate (producer/dj/3024 label boss/educator/writer/more) Martyn (@martyn3024 ). Art by @babywidow

There is a moment in Polygonia’s Mixmag interview last year where she talks about breaking free from the “deep techno” tag, and you get the sense she’s describing something more profound than career strategy. She’s talking about what it means for her to stay alive as an artist. Living relationships, whether your own with music, with a particular scene, or with a cat that disrupts your workflow, require growth, change, and breathing room. Openness is the condition for that growth. The way to honor what you’ve built is to let it have life and become something neither you nor anyone else predicted. Polygonia grew up a classically trained musician within a family of orchestra musicians while simultaneously spending years bouncing through hip-hop, drum and bass, dubstep, psytrance, jazz, and eventually techno (s/o Freqs of Nature Festival 2018), absorbing them all as different words in an ever-widening vocabulary. This distillation and filtering of styles with a classical music foundation resulted in someone who can code-switch between genres with genuine fluency and fluidity. You can take a look at her excellent back catalog and see that it’s true, but some of Polygonia’s more recent releases drive the point home. When you hear her tracks on the brilliant “Cross Passage” collab/split EP with techno visionary Wata Igarashi, her 2-step remix for Bristolian bass music vanguard Peverelist’s Pulse VII, and her solo contribution to Japanese techno label Daybreak’s latest comp, it’s made abundantly clear that the more vocabularies you speak, the more interesting things you can say. ____________________________________________________________________________ In Ephemeral Objects –08, Polygonia brings us 5 items that favor a creative practice rooted in living systems, physical interaction, and natural cycles. Check out the latest EO–08 (🔗 where it always is) and if you haven’t already, check out the collab EP with Wata Igarashi, her remix for Peverelist, the contribution for Daybreak’s comp as well as her wonderful mixes for Blitz Club and Beats in Space. Look closer. Stay a while. Art by @babywidow

ICYMI 🌇🧪: This one is about prioritizing a sustained presence in the room long enough for the work to happen. It’s about the right tools and systems providing the right conditions. You show up and you maintain in the hours. Art-making as skilled labor where romantic notions (mostly) need not apply. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the 🔗 in bio. ____________________________________________________________________________ Stay tuned for the next one with the ever-forward-thinking Polygonia (@_polygonia_ ). Art by @babywidow

The Brooklyn-based jazz and classically trained producer/DJ Escaflowne (@esca.fl0wne ) usually operates between genres. His past production and DJ sets have seen him easily move between house, UK garage, techno, electro, and jungle. His first proper long-player since 2021, Clouds, however, arrives at the 100bpm crossroads. Drawing from trip-hop, ambient, dub, dancehall, and sleazy funk, the new album, Clouds, sounds completely natural. The lush pads don’t drown you. The space given doesn’t allow you to drift off entirely. It’s quite lovely. Loose enough to breathe. Tight enough to hold shape. ____________________________________________________________________________ In Ephemeral Objects –07, Escaflowne brings us 3 items from his studio that shows us the creative process isn’t always some mystical thing that happens when the mood strikes. A lot of times, it’s a physical state that needs maintaining. Check out the latest EO —07 (🔗 where it always is) and go support their wonderful new downtempo album, Clouds, on Bandcamp. Look closer. Stay a while. Art by @babywidow

ICYMI 🫧🔅: This one is about preserving transformative experiences. It’s about remembering specific moments and emotional states. About the people who act as the glue that hold scenes together. About standing small against geological time, realizing you’re tiny and the universe doesn’t care, and that maybe it’s quite liberating once you stop being precious about it. The things you keep because you never want to forget. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the 🔗 in bio and the excellent mix accompanying their items. ____________________________________________________________________________ Stay tuned for the next one with NYC staple, Escaflowne (@esca.fl0wne ). Art by @babywidow

For years, Sobolik (@e_sobolik ) has carved out a unique space where bright, evocative synths float atop a bedrock of heavy low-end. Their intricate percussion and programming, which pulls from UK bass to the more hypnotic strains of 4/4 to downtempo, is the rare kind of music that can translate a feeling and transport you to a specific, crystalline moment. A vital voice in the electronic underground. New music from Sobolik is never to be missed. ____________________________________________________________________________ In Ephemeral Objects –06, Sobolik brings us 4 items from their studio that reveal how they find the divine in sound and creative community. These 4 items are perfectly paired with a new mix that lets us know exactly where they are musically. Peep the latest EO –06 (🔗 where it always is), the mix on SC and go support their excellent EP, Heavy Eyes, on Clasico Records. Look closer. Stay a while. Artwork by @babywidow

ICYMI 🫧🍍: This one’s all about community and connection. The little things that keep you tangled up with the people and places that matter. Markers of a life lived across cities, friends, family, and late-night sessions. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the 🔗 in bio. ____________________________________________________________________________ Stay tuned for the next one with NYC heavyweight Sobolik (@e_sobolik ) Artwork by @babywidow

Ephemeral Objects: Memory 02 The first one’s already smoke. This is the next. On Friday, October 10th at Mood Ring, bodies will move, lights will flicker, the floor will shake. For this fleeting moment, we bring: 🔊 Coido (@coido__ ) for his US debut 🔊 Doctor Jeep (@doctajeep ) 🔊 No Sir (@no__________sir ) 🔊 Joey (@joeyinstereo ) Listen closely. Stay a while. Artwork by @babywidow

Sam Binga (@sambingamusic ) has never flown solo for long. He’s been swapping ideas and basslines since day one. First drop? With Om Unit. From Exit to Critical to Astrophonica, he’s carried the flag with a long list of collaborators for bassweight weirdness. On his own label, Pineapple Records, he’s kept it rolling, and his latest mixtape, Club Orthotics, just upped the stakes with dancehall, techno, UKG, baile funk, Bmore, drill (to name a few), all in one riot. Whatever the style and whoever the collaborator, Binga’s stamp is the same. Always sly. Always heavy. Always up for it. ____________________________________________________________________________ In Ephemeral Objects –05, Sam Binga brings us items from his studio that connect him to memories that inform his strong visual aesthetic and remind him that music was always meant to travel. Peep the latest EO –05 (🔗 where it always is) and check his RA page to stay updated on where in the world you’ll see him next. Look closer. Stay awhile. Artwork by @babywidow

ICYMI 🪶🌀: In this latest installment of Ephemeral Objects, No Sir’s studio becomes a map of reminders. Reminders of the persistence of art beyond any single life, that love and distraction often come hand in hand, and that feelings of alienation and beauty aren’t mutually exclusive. If you haven’t seen it yet, check out the 🔗 in bio. ____________________________________________________________________________ Stay tuned for next edition with the Bristol bass music don Sam Binga (@sambingamusic ). Art by @babywidow

Brooklyn-based No Sir (@no__________sir ) makes music that lives in tension. Shaped by the 3024 Mentorship Program + the Level Party crew, they’ve released on labels respected in the global underground like Woozy, 3024, Early Reflex, De la… je l’espère, and earned a monthly residency on The Lot Radio. Their process is instinctual, messy, and full of “happy accidents.” Letting intuition lead. Letting the form follow. ____________________________________________________________________________ For this 4th edition of Ephemeral Objects, No Sir offers 3 items from their studio that carry weight and anchor them in their creative journey. Check out the latest EO —4 (🔗 in bio) and catch them irl at one of their shows around the city or url every first monday of the month on The Lot Radio. Look closer. Stay awhile. Artwork by @babywidow

ICYMI 🧊⏱️: This one is about environment as memory. Four rooms. Four quiet ecosystems of sound and self. For the third installment of Ephemeral Objects, Kellen303 (@kellen303ny ) invites us into four distinct spaces, each accompanied by a curated selection of music he made in that space. Each room serves as a backdrop to a specific musical atmosphere, highlighting the significance of environment in the creative journey. ____________________________________________________________________________ Stay tuned for our next edition with NYC-based rising artist No Sir (@no__________sir ) Art by @babywidow