tstewart’s sound has always been more reserved and placid than Machinedrum, and nowhere is this truer than on this new album. Songs such as “baxter climb” opt for a more danceable angle, however the track itself is hazy and the persistent beat is subdued and unobtrusive. Stewart makes heavy use of piano throughout the album; sometimes grand and glassy as heard on the opening track, sometimes warm and raw, as heard on the likes of “flow away” and “buena”, and sometimes with more than a touch of jazz influence, as heard on “feel who you are”.

According to a press release, elysian takes its name from Los Angeles’ own Elysian Park, which is located in the downtown area of the city, and is a piece of nature that remains largely unaffected by the urban sprawl around it. The park, as indicated by the title of the album, is the muse for Stewart’s latest work. Stewart has released a series of visualisers to some of the tracks, which feature stunning footage of the inside of Elysian Park.

Stewart himself said, again according to a press release: “Elysian literally translates to ‘heaven for heroes’. I’m not religious. To me, the idea of heaven is an inner-peace you seek while alive. I try to find moments in my life where I connect with that feeling and one of the easiest ways is exploring nature.”

Seeking an equilibrium between city-life and nature, tstewart describes many parts of his life as a pendulum swinging. Sometimes he enjoys making intricate beats and exploring sound design, whilst other times the relaxing call of the keys beckons. Splitting time between LA and New York, there’s a sense of frustration around any monotony creeping into tstewart’s fascinating life. Having produced for stars like Azealia Banks, A$AP Ferg and Jesse Boykins III, tstewart played with this new sound just one month after releasing Machinedrum’s career-defining Human Energy body of work.

Accompanying the album release is elysian walk, a web based and real world experience of tstewart’s world:  http://tstewart.net/ (only on mobile). Using the Google Maps platform, fans can explore their local area to unlock exclusive content, such as newly created sonic journeys for a park walk, B sides, stems, and personal messages from the artist.

Photo Credit: Bonobo/Press Release

It certainly promises to be an exciting couple of months for Travis Stewart, better known as Machinedrum. By the time Vapor City gets dropped he will have already played two shows on his gigantic world tour, taking in shows at the Decibel Festival in Seattle and playing at We Love Space in Ibiza. But for the time being, he has released the video to Gunshotta to the masses, where a group of feral teenagers are followed going about their business in a dark, hallucinated wasteland known as Gunshotta Ave. The track itself is a fast paced jungle adventure, with no signs of letting up throughout the four and a half minutes. 

His world tour is where the excitement will really kick in for Machinedrum though. He will be bringing with him a new live routine, one that will really raise the bar as far as his live performances go. Speaking of the new live show, he said “Vapor City Live is a performance of the full album set to a video projection made by visual artist Weirdcore. The performance will involve myself playing electronics, guitar and vocals while Lane Barrington will be on drum kit and samples.”

The world tour will take him to places all over the globe, with performances scheduled for Japan, the UK, US, Mexico and mainland Europe. It promises to be a whirlwind adventure, and to make it just that little bit extra special, the ever innovative Boiler Room will be teaming up with Machinedrum and Ninja Tune to deliver a special trilogy, titled Vapor City Boiler Room Trilogy. A selection of friends and collaborators will be joining forces to celebrate the release of the album in three different cities, New York, London and Berlin, all very close to Machinedrum’s heart. These will all be available to view online, courteously of Boiler Room TV (find links below).

You can check out the video for Gunshotta below. Vapor City is released next Monday, the 30th of September on Ninja Tune. If you want to catch a piece of the action live, which, let’s face it, you do, look at the tour dates below, and find one you can get to.

September

Wednesday 25th – Boiler Room, New York City

http://boilerroom.tv/session/boiler-room-ny-machinedrum-vapor-city-special-n-edition/

October

Tuesday 8th – Boiler Room, London

http://boilerroom.tv/session/machinedrum-vapor-city-special-london-edition/

Thursday 10th – Boiler Room, Berlin

http://boilerroom.tv/session/machinedrum-vapor-city-special-berlin-edition/

Monday 14th – The Haunt, Brighton

Tuesday 15th – Tuesday Club, Sheffield

Wednesday 16th – Gorilla, Manchester

Thursday 17th – Sneaky Petes, Edinburgh

November

Saturday 2nd – The Button Factory, Dublin

Friday 8th – Village Underground, London