Hot City Orchestra - I Almost Danced (The Ultimate Collection)

Hot City Orchestra deliver debut album ‘I Almost Danced’ via their own Internet Is Over imprint this September,

comprising three parts to make up the collective LP which traverses through downtempo, ambient, glitch, dub

and more.

Hot City Orchestra is the collaborative guise of Arno Volker, label boss of Pressure Traxx and La Peña, and his

long-time friend Simon Birkenfeld. In February of 2021 the duo inaugurated this new project and new imprint,

Internet Is Over, with their debut EP ‘The Planet’. This material found the duo utilising modular synthesis and

field recordings, taking inspiration from both nature and city life and fusing an amalgamation of influences into

something uniquely theirs. Here Hot City Orchestra return once again to showcase more of their idiosyncratic

sounds with a debut album.

Part one of three from the ‘I Almost Danced’ LP is made up of four cuts featuring pianist Nicolas Engel, the first

of which ‘Two Penguins No Parrots’ brings modulating, glitched out percussion, hazy atmospherics and gliding

jazzy keys into the limelight throughout. ‘It Ain’t Over Yet’ follows next and embraces an early 2000’s IDM

aesthetic, laid out across fifteen minutes with a minimalistic rhythm, winding subs, ethereal synth textures and

dubbed out piano licks.

‘Ocean View’ follows next, as the name would suggest leaning towards a dreamier, sun drenched feel with

organic percussion, airy keys, fluttering synth modulations and boomy low end tones. ‘Muffin Recipe’ then rounds

out part one, a beatless exploration in electronic jazz, fuelled by ever evolving jazzy keys and dynamically

nuanced grainy synths which bloom and retract throughout.