Audiopile Review: Absolute jaw dropper from Texan producer Gi Gi, who strikes quickly after Sunchoke, his 2023 trance induction on the Good Morning Tapes imprint, which instantly put him on the must-watch list here at the shop. And Gi Gi does not disappoint. Returning to the NYC Quiet Time Tapes imprint, Gi Gi carries on the effervescent downtempo and new age IDM that was explored across Sunchoke, submerging even further into dreamtime melody and transcendent fixation. Deploying an airy set of synths, intertwining melodies, shuffling beat work and a lattice of smeary vocal samples, Gi Gi swipes at blunted trip-hop, fourth world atmospherics and shoegaze textures, applying a holistic lens that’s as soothing as it is transfixing. The meditative but propulsive transmissions share a common thread with the new wave of ambient artists floating in the oft-referenced 3XL/West Mineral interzone but particularly so with Naemi’s year-end contender, Dust Devil, an album that also flirted with the dreamier end of ‘90s electronic-dream pop and trip-hop ethereality. The ongoing trend is a welcome one as we enter a new bleak era—Dreamliner is here for your temporary escape.

Gi Gi returns to Quiet Time with a new album, Dreamliner. His last full-length for Quiet Time, Lumino Pleco, was built on familiar samples, melted into a skunky sludge. It evoked a heat-warped meditation cassette unearthed from a Goodwill located in a black hole. The Texas producer’s latest, Dreamliner, is comparably immediate and propulsive. Here, Gi Gi explores spacey, kosmische-laced trip-hop. At first, these eight tracks come across placid and twinkly — calling to mind glitter stars twinkling atop a navy canvas, or tropical sun beams cutting through crystal water. But a jaggedness becomes apparent when lended a focused ear. Beneath slow motion arpeggiations and lullaby melodies, dubby percussion and sound effects gnash and quiver.