Canadian producer Jamison Isaak, who began releasing music as Teen Daze in 2010, emerged as part of a loosely defined scene specializing in hushed, woozy, and intimate electronic songs, which felt like bedroom recordings even when their creators used more robust studios. The ironic poet laureate of late-aughties indie culture, Hipster Runoff founder Carles, dubbed this style “chillwave.” The trend crashed a year or two later, and Isaak is one of a handful of chillwave veterans who’s continued to explore the boundaries of the aesthetic. His sixth album, April’s Bioluminescence (Flora), is conspicuous in its earth-positive consciousness. Even if the name doesn’t clue you in, you’re likely to pick up on the warmth of his field recordings, which of course include the sound of waves breaking on the shore. Natural and computerized sounds not only coexist in Isaak’s music but blur together, and the best cuts on Bioluminescence—including the gentle deep-house epic “Ocean Floor”—use this synthesis to summon hypnotic bliss. v
Teen Daze harmonizes the natural and computerized worlds on Bioluminescence
