Here's a newish 2-tracker from the always active Tokyo-based producer/DJ Max Essa, released through his Jansen Jardin label. Essa is one of the minds behind Music For Dreams excellent "Oto No Wa" compilation, a collection of music that shined a very timely light on the more rhythmic side of Japanese ambient and chill-out music, and some of the impulses that compilation illuminated are on display across these cuts.

"Black Market Launderette" sees jumped-up machine funk rhythms lay the foundations for a strutting bass figure, cloudy synth swirls and whimsical cyber-melodies. Roller disco music for androids doing their washing, before enjoying a Friday night out in the red LED entertainment district of a ascendant, floating metropolis, or perhaps an archipelago of silicon islands in the sky. On the digital flip, "The Cowboy Rembrandt", slow motion chords serve as a soft counterpoint to a sonic kaleidoscopic of melodic blips, uptempo drum programming and a bassline with the sort of momentum you'd expect from a never-ending escalator. This one takes the party from Cloud City to a dance club on a newly expanded international space station. Wonder how you get home after a bender up there?

"Black Market Laundrette​/​The Cowboy Rembrandt" is out now through Jansen Jardin (purchase here)