REVIEW: Arcologies - Ocean Deep and Vapor Drive
Unclogging your jungle pipeline has never been easier
The more oversaturated the genre, the more it pays to be picky — and believe you me, a good, clean #gatekeep has rarely been more warranted than by atmospheric jungle’s post-Sewerslvt tumescence into the internet’s favourite kitschhaus. There are obvious targets here, and we will not dwell long on them — for the loli-branded efforts of Gen Z-ers slapping turgid, EDM-adjacent hooks over tired Amen rehashings, a little out of sight, out of mind does better work than a moralising rant. The warning signs are usually clear enough for one to waste appropriately little of their time on that gunk: chalk it up as a sideshow nuisance, and move along!
The real difficulty with jungle (atmospheric or otherwise) is harder to take umbrage with: of the vast quantities uploaded on the daily, much – maybe even most – of the stuff plays with neither significant mishap nor particular cause for excitement. God help you if you’re trawling it with the hope of finding anything more than playlist fodder. Looking for a real deal? For something special and enduring? If so, it’s every gatekeeper for themselves, and I think any joy in jungle-delving has to stem at least in part from individual curation.
Find your pearls and clutch them! It might not have the romantic appeal of old-world crate digging, but there is so much competent present-era material to sift through that, with a good grip on your own preferences, you can practically build your own canon. I’ve no mind as such to pontificate over the ‘correct’ ranking of your Pizza Hotlines against your DreamWeavers against your TURQUOISEDEATHs (especially since Milo already nailed that one for us) — if you’re not getting your hands dirty and gunging out that pipeline for yourself, you’re in the wrong game here.
What I can do is to flag the artists who remind me exactly why it’s so ultimately worthwhile to keep digging — and Chicago producer Arcologies ticks every last box for an atmospheric junglist in this era or any. From his knack for a gorgeous soundscape to his versatility to his endless reinterpretation of the breakbeat to his evocation of ‘90s greats, the man has everything going for him. His production chops draw on tracker and MIDI techniques for an approach equal parts old- and nu-skool, while his melodic progressions boast out-of-genre appeal in their balance of understatement and graceful enticement. The upshot is a perfect take on a drum and bass blissout, and we’re going to chart its ins and outs over a couple of Arcologies releases, first and foremost his 2024 landmark Ocean Deep.
57:01 (w/ bonus tracks 76:40) // May 25th, 2024 // self-released (vinyl on MMRY)
In a decidedly album-averse genre, this record is something special. Running (in its ideal form: see below) at well over an hour, its tracklist is immaculately paced, thoroughly consistent, and maintains an unflinching focus on an overarching breakbeat dream-odyssey while somehow making a distinct impression from tune to tune — that full-album, single-track mix on Bandcamp ain’t just for show! Arcologies’ variety of material goes a long way here: he proves equally convincing at his most expansive as at his most succinct, the extremes of which are conveniently mapped by the album’s two chief highlights.
On the bitesized end, “The Dreaming Dark” sees Arcologies at his most immediate, its opening chords landing with the instant presence of a bona fide radio single, and its skittering breakbeats played for perfect stop-start dynamism. Nothing changes compositionally once the tone is set, but the arrangement exerts a tenacious grip in its changes of pace. This is the one you send to your mates.
On the more diffuse side of things, “Skydancer” makes for the album’s most serene kick-back, its beats phased in and out of a wider reverie as Arcologies ekes maximal mileage out of a handful of subtle melody lines. This one’s bliss-out lays on such a soft touch that time itself seems to wilt away, all possible actions and motions gridlocked by an impossible barrier of friction in the face of which each second-to-second shift of e.g. a ticking clockface becomes an event of impossible weight and consequence. I’m reminded of kindred atmo-breaksmith DreamWeaver’s most gossamer offerings, and in a similar fashion this track demands unrelenting repeats.
The rest of a tracklist offers a mix of these tactile and ethereal inclinations, from “Astral Breeze” ratcheting the tempo way up to chase one of the album’s haziest soundscapes with a blinding flurry, to “Rendezvous”, which evokes the mighty Shogun with its featherweight beat and emphasis on twinkling keys. You’ll hear echoes of old-school touchstones all over the shop: take “Cultivation”, whose palette is a comfortable halfway house between Big Bud-esque chillout and a Source Direct-style breakbeat tech-out. It’s this latter side where Arcologies pulls his weight as a producer, with his tracker mastery front and centre. The percussion across this album is perfectly intricate, never needlessly contorted but subject to enough continuous variation to appease anyone suspicious of the mindless click-and-drag of a DAW loopstation. Ocean Deep is steeped in jungle’s trademark beat-juggle: you will not hear a single stale Amen break across the whole tracklist, and even the album’s more straightforward beats seem to find a new footing every other bar (see again “Skydancer”).
The upshot of this goes far beyond wily sampling or a sensitivity to rhythmic patterns’ relative shelf lives: foregrounded against Ocean Deep‘s atmospheric stylings, those tireless breakbeat permutations draw momentum and that all-important, ever-elusive lifeforce from the album’s ethereal side, rather than simply coast on it. We’re well within the ear of the behearer by now, but I think this percussive dynamism is the main factor in what makes Arcologies’ music so compelling compared to the aesthetic wallpaper that so many superficially adjacent releases fall into: there’s just no substitute for that livewire engagement with the form. In this sense, he’s as worthy a scion of the ‘90s as anyone you’ll find in today’s landscape. Is Ocean Deep the perfect calling card? Hmm…!
8.5/10
Further listening:
Artemis - Silver Dawn
Source Direct - Secret Liaisons / Complexities
Shogun - Ulysees / Nautilus (Mouly + Lucida Mix)
Future Sound - Sorrow / Liquid Groove
DreamWeaver - Blue Garden
* * * *
b-b-but what about the bonus trax? which Ocean Deep do i need?
Right, so there are three editions of this album:
There are three editions of this album:
1. the six-track vinyl tracklist,
2. the nine-track cassette tracklist (the version available on streaming services, with the addition of a full-album mix), and
3. the twelve-track downloadable edition that adds three bonus tracks to the cassette tracklist.
Avoid the vinyl tracklist unless you are specifically listening on that format, as the opening pairing of the two longest tracks leaves it lopsided and makes little sense outside of the physical limitations of a single side of an LP.
The cassette/streaming tracklist does a much better job of alternating the scope and tone of individual tracks, but for this album, more really is more: get your hands on the download-only tracklist (currently name-your-price on Bandcamp), and get a load of that excellent extra content.
The bonus track “Suspended Simulation” is an instant standout that can go toe-to-toe with anything on the core tracklist, while the snappier “Basement Life” introduces vocal-centric songwriting to his comfort zone and “Drum Machine Dreams (Yamaha RX5 Demo)”’ saxophone line makes a seductive contrast with the softer tones Arcologies tends to draw on for his melodies. Do not sleep on these!Wait! We’re not done here — where do you think you’re going? Take that jacket back off, we’re not done here. If Ocean Deep is the perfect contemporary digest of all things atmospheric and breakbeat, then its frostier counterpart from this year opens a new set of doors to Arcologies. And so…
66:14 // April 24th, 2025 // self-released
With the above expo about Arcologies’ twinkling, percussive magic in mind, the first thing to note about his latest effort is how much keener it is to drift. Vapor Drive pares back his percussive focus and immerses itself much, much more in the intersection between delay patterns and spangled melody lines. Moment by moment, it doesn’t necessarily have more or less ‘empty space’ than Ocean Deep, but it hinges enough on repetition that there’s a pronounced difference in pacing. Arcologies foregrounds an emphasis on liminal slowburners from the outset, with opener “Delta Waves” clocking in as the album’s most spartan offering. This track is a solid enough atmospheric cut, but it supplements the patient development of its ethereal arrangement with minimal variation in its beatwork. Whatever mesmerism it achieves wears a little thin by the end of its lengthy runtime, but the following tracklist takes its spacey tones and glacial progression as a benchmark and makes good on it.
Arcologies explores this style more successfully when he adjusts his approach towards ends dreamier (”Synaptic Transfer”) or more kinetic (”Crystal Stasis”, “Three Days Later”) than the opener. Chief among these slow-burners is “Searcher”, which cycles so headily within cresting synth pads and delay pangs that one practically hears it as a dub jam, but with its relative highs and lows cut so obviously from the same cloth, Vapor Drive eschews Ocean Deep‘s variation; it demands a more dedicated space-out of its audience and shrugs off the appeal of an all-occasions listen in favour of a more singular approach.
I can easily see this album resonating harder with a minority share of Arcologies’ audience, but leaving preferences and attention spans aside, it’s exciting to hear him move into a space with less of a direct, in-genre precedent. If Vapor Drive is less evocative of atmospheric jungle’s key touchstones than his previous work, then it’s also less indebted to them: it’s to this album’s credit that you could just as easily cue it next to ambient dub (Purelink) or psybient (Aes Dana) as alongside LTJ Bukem or Photek. I’m not convinced that Arcologies fully exploits his talent for compelling beatwork here, but there’s palpable growth to be heard in his engagement with a more expansive palette. Excellent as it is, Ocean Deep embodies atmospheric jungle without seeking to redefine it — if Vapor Drive is Arcologies’ next step towards leaving a deeper mark on the form, then it provides ample cause for excitement, and if not, then it’s still a solid record on anyone’s terms.
7.5/10
Further listening:
Illuvia - Earth Prism
Dusqk - Sanctuary OS
DJ Strawberry - Cycles
Andrea - Due in Color
Finally getting around to this and it is top shelf stuff to be sure. Where on earth do I find the 12 track downloadable edition of ocean-deep? Bandcamp only seems to have the 9-track version.