Narande

Azaleh needs no introduction. If you're a fan of future garage the German artist has likely been a favourite of yours from the very start of your journey into the sound, perhaps even being the first artist you heard. His music has taken a more futuristic, detailed turn in the past few months, but the classic Azaleh sound remains embedded in everything he does.

"Narande" is a masterclass of control. In such a deep, atmospheric genre, subtlety within the drums is a difficult task to achieve. Azaleh, of course, takes no notice of this difficulty, presenting the listener with an incredibly smooth organic percussion line that shifts and evolves as the track progresses, moving effortlessly in and out of the mix.

Seated around the percussion, eerie leads meet a bassline that unfurls around the drums as though it lives and breathes; it seems almost sentient in fact. Therein perhaps lies his true mastery; every aspect of the track feels organic and alive despite the myriad of electronic sounds littered throughout it. I'm not sure how he manages this, but it leads to every Azaleh track being truly something special.