Audio Asia: Chalo serves pristine sonics on the ethereal stereo landscape of 'Lucid'

Title: Lucid
Artist: Chalo
Label: Boiled Wonderland
Release Date: Out now

Bangkok-based producer and mastering engineer Chalo arrives with his Boiled Wonderland debut, delivering a slick four-track EP rooted in the rapidly evolving Asian techno underground.

Fellow Bangkokians Boiled Wonderland carry on the fine work they started with last year's inaugural release from Max Mason, showing deft attention to the task of curation while shedding light on one of Thailand's growing number of exciting subterranean creators. As well as three original tracks composed by Chalo, the 'Lucid' EP features a remix from Bristol-based Remotif, completing an alluring package for committed lovers of the deep. Chalo has spent time living in Europe's techno capital, Berlin, and now works as a mastering engineer in Bangkok, at Ressurec Vinyl as well as his own Resistance Mastering company. He recently recorded a DJ mix exclusively for Mixmag Asia, you can take a listen here.

True to his engineering background, each of Chalo's tracks are immaculately produced, with close attention paid to mix separation, depth, and stereo imaging. Many burgeoning producers regard the mastering process as something of a dark art, but, for Chalo, the instinct to deliver a polished product comes naturally. “When I master records I often imagine the whole sound stage as a picture,” he says. “It means that my approach to music is to draw sounds between two speakers so that when you listen to music you should be able to feel music dancing between your ears.”

The EP opens with the ice-cold aesthetics of 'Trickster', with its rolling breaks, simmering bass and atmospheric pads. Elsewhere we find the furiously paced 'Mirage', where scattered drums echo over a pitch-black sonic landscape before the music erupts into life as the arrangement dramatically unfolds. Remotif's remix of the title track arrives with a blissed-out jungle flow, with its sub-bass hits and floating pads presenting a contemporary take on the earliest manifestations of the intelligent d 'n' b movement, but it's the original version we've opted to feature here. Launching through ethereal synth waves, free-flowing drums stealthily take to the fore with their complex rhythm. Sweeps cascade as soothing chords elevate, while staccato synth lines effortlessly unfurl over the otherworldly topography.

This is striking work from Chalo – leaving us eminently curious about what will be next to arrive from deep within his audio laboratory – and another intriguing example of the distinct techno/breaks movement emerging from the Asian continent.

Chalo 'Lucid' EP is out now on Boiled Wonderland, you can buy it here