Bleep

Khotin’s LP Beautiful You was first issued on the artist’s own Khotin Industries back in 2018. As it was with his previous full-length New Tab, Beautiful You has been a word-of-mouth success - and just like how the similarly self-released New Tab garnered itself a reissue through Pacific Rhythm, this new edition of Beautiful You comes to us via Ghostly International. We at Bleep are pleased to be able to offer a UK exclusive ‘white smoke’ copies of the vinyl as well as the regular pressing.

Khotin hails from the same Vancouver scene as D. Tiffany and Pender Street Steppers, and his first few releases back in the mid-2010’s dealt in a similar strain of warm, wistful deep house. However, recent records have found Khotin moving away from the dancefloor, swapping out the fast beats and doubling down on the synth pads.

It has proven to be an inspired move. On Beautiful You, the artist born Dylan Khotin-Foote expands on the gorgeous ambient Balearic style that was the backbone of New Tab. One can easily imagine a track like ‘Vacation’ cropping up on an earlier Khotin drop replete with a four-to-the-floor kick drum, but his decision to eschew such things now allows us to focus on the dinky sequencers and halcyon-glow keyboards.

The dreamy fog that cloaks these tracks gives Beautiful You a vibe not unlike that of Macintosh Plus’ Floral Shoppe. There are also moments here where the album steers close to the slow motion lo-fi electronics of Hype Williams. In particular, the tracks in Beautiful You’s second half which feature woozy drums and snippets of spoken word recall the band’s seminal One Nation LP.

As it was with New Tab, so it is again with Beautiful You. Khotin’s third LP is another quiet triumph.