Ambassadeurs – Can’t You See
Ambassadeurs will release his new EP, ‘Can’t You See’, featuring three new tracks ‘Can’t You See’ (premiered by Radio 1 and The Fader), ‘My Way’, and ‘Everyday’, in April.
Ahead of this summer’s debut album, Ambassadeurs’ ever-growing list of critical plaudits, from the likes of Vice, iD, Mixmag, Clash, XLR8R, This Is Fake DIY, Noisey and beyond, has now been joined by national UK radio support, with January’s ‘Forever’ EP getting specialist Radio 1 support from Huw Stephens, Phil Taggart, Monki and SOHN.
Ambassadeurs forthcoming live shows include The Sound You Need festival in Paris alongside Rustie and more (14/3), Barcelona’s Razzmatazz (21/3), London’s Birthdays (4/4), Start The Bus in Bristol (25/4), Rome (15/5), and his first US date of 2015 at the Lightning In A Bottle festival in California, which will fall ahead of a 4 week US tour.
With previous live support slots under his belt for Danny Brown, Machinedrum, and Gold Panda, Ambassadeurs played his debut US live tour at the end of 2014 with a 30 date support stint for ODESZA, followed by festival performances alongside some of electronic music’s biggest names at LA’s Hard Day Of The Dead and the Brooklyn Electronic Music Festival.
The above shows, and his time on the tour bus spent listening to more 4/4 beats and techno, have helped shape the three tracks on ‘Can’t You See’ (though for rhythm pedants, ‘My Way’ actually alternates between 5/4 and 6/4 time). With this release the introspective, ethereal Ambassadeurs’ ‘sound’ takes a back seat with synthesized sounds coming to the fore, especially on ‘Everyday’ and ‘My Way’.
Splitting his time between studio sessions and field trips to London and the British south coast to collect found sounds for his productions, Ambassadeurs (aka Mark Dobson) is fast emerging as a British counterpoint to artists such as Salva and XXYYXX. Ambassadeurs’ leftfield, bass-heavy electronic music is fast making a name for the young producer, in addition to his own releases, he’s remixed for labels including Tru Thoughts, Ninja Tune, Moshi Moshi, Fat Cat, Wah Wah 45s and others.
Ambassadeurs started out learning his craft on an 8-bit Amiga computer, wrestling with the notoriously tricky Octamed while the rest of us were playing Lemmings. He upgraded to Logic and began working with electronic instruments, getting inside the machinery to make them sound the way he wanted. Taking cues from dub, hip-hop, bass and jazz, but sounding like none of these genres, Ambassadeurs’ sound is hard to pigeonhole. His distinctive style can be attributed to a Tobin-like love for turning found sounds into samples and processing them beyond recognition.
