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2002 in San Francisco.
Sounds like: A Saturday Night Fever-style dance floor made of melting chocolate.
For fans of: Boards of Canada's Geogaddi, anything on the Ghost Box label, Luke Vibert's Big Soup.
Latest release: Dive, one of 2011's finest albums, found producer-musician Scott Hansen painting pastoral sonic landscapes that are a little off-balance with wobbly synths and arrhythmic beats that don't quite match your heart rate.
Why you care: The music Hansen creates as a sideline to his acclaimed career as a graphic designer unfolds gently and calmly, even when it pushes a speedy BPM. That cool mood is as much a result of his love of glossy, downtempo beats as it is of the methodical pace with which he writes and records. The 10 songs on Dive took Hansen five years to craft. As he told XLR8R magazine late last year, "If I start a song, I finish it. But taking [an] idea to what I consider to be a finished product is a very, very long, winding road of meticulously going over every detail." That care pays off not only on record, but also when Hansen fleshes the songs out further live, accompanied by a drummer and bassist. Melodies balloon and take flight, the low end echoes in your abdomen, and nirvana seems within reach.
SEE IT: Tycho plays Doug Fir Lounge on Thursday, May 24, with Active Child and Lord Huron. 9 pm. $13 advance, $15 day of show. 21+.
WWeek 2015