Grant Deane Returns To ◢sidehatch. With His Brand New Album

Grant Deane returns triumphantly to ◢sidehatch. with Apparent Haven, a captivating, deft and sleek evolution of the sound established on last year’s A Coruscating Hope. Spellbinding in its restraint, the release sees Deane further refine his instantly recognisable approach, stripping each track back to its essentials and allowing the grooves, textures and subtle details to take root.

The most arresting quality of the gorgeous, hypnagogic opener “Heights” is its immaculate sound design. Warm, thudding low slung grooves are punctuated not by oversized leads, but by hypnotic arrangements of organic techno textures, refracted synths and subtle bursts of noise. This approach reaches an early peak with “Boundless”, an euphoric dancefloor construction built around tender vocal microsamples that feel painfully nostalgic, warmly dreamy, yet somehow consciousness displacing.

Apparent Haven places the listener into a series of consecutive flow states, each possessing its own hue, character and tone while remaining tightly bound by Deane’s distinct techno language. Some tracks immediately grasp for the floor, from the irresistible sashay of “Tantamount To Capitulation” to the twisty, dusty and cheeky “Enjoy The Floor”. Elsewhere, particularly towards the latter half of the record, “Thoughts of You” finds Deane in a gentler, more introspective space.

More than perhaps any previous release, Apparent Haven reveals a blossoming breadth in the environments Deane is capable of creating. Yet despite this expanded palette, everything gels effortlessly: a testament to his singular knack for making thuds, hiss, synth squiggles and meticulously crafted hypnotic grooves feel vividly alive.