MUTEKLIVE109 - Local Artist

LOCAL ARTIST (CA)

WHO: Vancouver-based producer Ian Wyatt, also known as Slow Riffs
STYLE: Jazz-inflected hazy house, uncluttered bloopy, dubby techno
LATEST: Feelings EP (2015), as Slow Riffs, Gong Bath 12" (2015), Local Artist EP (2013)
LABELS: Proibito, Rhythm Section International, Mood Hut
MORE: Also a member of the No Gold trio with Jack Jutson and Liam Butler of Mood Hut labelmates Pender Street Steppers

Local Artist makes himself at home in our heads with his warm and enigmatic techno-house, staying in one place only long enough to make an atypical impression. His unstuck, spry rhythms cause heads to nod and mouths to grin – this is a deep, enlivening, good time.

Local Artists’s vibe nicely fits in with the almost imperceptibly new age, lounge-leaning house on Vancouver’s Mood Hut, a label that recently featured his work and other tracks on mix compilations and released a Slow Riffs ambient EP the label describes as “for healing use only” – flowing water and rainsticks are employed, but so are reverberating synth lines and crashing drums.

Wyatt’s therapeutic qualities carry over into his club music, keeping it balmy and vaguely introspective – his gorgeous debut EP on Anthony Naples’s Proibito powers its way into cosmic techno-land and his newest release, Feelings, moves along in an unhurried house groove, smoothed by long chords and sparked by reverberating dub twangs and horns. Local Artist debuted a live set that slid perfectly into the celebratory, chill time that is Sunday night at MUTEK.