"So much of dance music is about partying and going out and having a really hardcore social experience," says queer producer Will Wiesenfeld of the ambient dance project Geotic. "Dance music has never been that for me. So much of my experience listening to music is being by myself--at home or in my car."
Wiesenfeld, who's based in Los Angeles, is best known for his production under the moniker, Baths, though he's recently embarked on a new journey through Geotic that purveys dance music for "passive listeners." This, he assures, isn't a sound promoting "apathy," but one designed for at-home enjoyment, reveling more in subtleties than all the extremes dance music is best known for: giant productions with manic lights and machine-like drops.
Will Wiesenfeld (Photography: Mario Luna)
On Geotic's forthcoming debut album, Absyma, the producer escapes from mainstream dance tropes and finds power in the overlooked nuances of soft electronic. "I see it as being a comfortable middle ground between that crazy hyper-emotive EDM and the hyper minimal deep dark club stuff," he says. "I like both of those things in different amounts, but I like the middle ground most. It's not showy, it's just a comfortable emotional zone."
Lead single, "Actually Smiling," offers a sunny first introduction to Geotic's distant, danceable grooves. In the track, a quiet chorus of warped, warm voices gently throb above a fluttering piano melody that's interspliced with delicate incessant percussion. Geotic's debut is complex, but understated--nostalgic, but contemporary. He's somehow managed to create work that sounds optimistic, though most music this month has boiled with anti-Trump rage--needed, but exhausting.
Enjoy the refreshing Absyma cut ahead of the LP's March 31 release via Ghostly International.
