Grounded in Existence

American techno-minimalist and producer Stewart Walker returns with his second full-length record crafted specially for the home-listener. Grounded in Existence is the downtempo thematic successor to 1999's critically-acclaimed Stabiles album on Force Inc. After years of talking about the difference between music for the dancefloor vs. music for the home, Stewart Walker had a history making dance-tracks with a minimal bent until he devoted himself to steady techno bass pulses for the home environment. Stabile's minimal and organic orchestration inspired the now-huge genre of simple but effective bass and reverb nod-a-thons. But truthfully, this music was simply a logical progression from Stewart's influences Basic Channel and Mike Ink's "Studio 1" series. When Walker started work on Grounded in Existence he had spent much more time listening to hip-hop and indie rock than techno 12"s, and he wished to reshape those influences into an electronic format making original sounds out of genre-mixing. In addition, he aimed to bring back strong melodies and harmonies into his music, aligning these new tonalities into a more traditional song structure so that each track has multiple instances of quiet and intensity. It all smacks of "post-techno" but let's try not to take ourselves.