Portland producer Devonwho returns to Leaving Records for new album of self-described “modern instrumental synthesiser funk therapy” TV2, an expansive collection of intuitively crafted loops and non-ambient ambience for hardware synthesis.

Marking the tenth anniversary of Devonwho’s relationship with Leaving Records, TV2 represents the producer’s first new work since 2021. “I was overthinking releasing music,” Devonwho reveals, “but I’ve reached a place of enjoyment with production. Not worried about pressures of having a consistent output. I’m back to making music for fun. I’ve been making this stuff for years and years and something just clicked to release the music. ”

New album TV2 (which can be taken to read “transmissions vol. 2”, according to the artist) is a broad and effusive album of quickfire productions, created instinctively with live looping and patch generation, in which sound design is intentionally and expressively prioritised over structural complexity. “I’m not here to make intricate songs,” Devonwho writes. “My process is free-form, eyes-closed intuition, moment-to-moment.”

Opening single “Hibeams” begins with pluvial arpeggiated synthesis, raining down on grainy pads with colorful prettiness. It progresses in loops as its elements react and respond to each other like differently sized droplet splashes, rhythmic without beats and narrative without complication.

Next, “PM” is softer but still nestled in old VHS detritus that lends a grit and nostalgic sepia to its warped-tapehead melodies. The twin influences of funk and IDM intertwine to form jazzy haze, revealing a hidden musicianship obscured by the subtle simplicity of the track’s structure.

Later, “Jogo” is scattered and urgent, a rare venture over the three minute mark as insistent squarewaves underpin hi-frequency skittering and lush chords. Its rhythms are headspinning, again without beat production, pointing to Devonwho’s self-confessed love of arpeggiation (“arps in everything!”), early Warp, and being “an avid tinkerer.”
Devonwho, coming from a background in beatmaking, explains that looping is a “personal and integral listening experience and creative process,” through which the music of TV2 is formed as a unique meeting point of beatless funk, electronic music informed by loops and beatmaking, nods to Madlib, and only the rarest loans from ambient music.

Devonwho came to prominence following a move from Portland to LA in 2009. He helped found the early beat-scene collective Klipmode, which also comprised Knxwledge, Mndsgn, and Suzi Analog. Then creating ambient music informed by a love of analog synths, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada, and the wider IDM scene (a journey set off by the accidental download of Aphex Twin’s notorious Milkman as a Napster-surfing teenager in the 90s), Devonwho found himself unfulfilled by the style’s comparatively formless palette and instead turned to his interest in funk to fuel a new creative direction. This led to signing to LA’s Leaving Records in 2016 for the release of the Lyon EP, and several more records with the label over the subsequent decade.