Musematic unravelled compositional electronica into a cosmos of texture and transcendence in Oxblood & Olive (2025 Remaster) –

Musematic has long since perfected the art of aural convention before pushing beyond the arbitrary parameters that define it, resulting in his 2025 remaster of Oxblood & Olive feeling like standing in the middle of an oceanic current of leftfield ingenuity.

The soundscape ripples with a similar sense of progression found in chiptune melodies, but instead of polyphonic discordance, there’s a serene cosmology of tones, textures, and colours that spiral through the synapses, implanting heady doses of catharsis and escapism. The forward motion within the track never falters; every rhythm and motif feels magnetised towards transcendence, even as the syncopated trip-hop beats pull the listener gently back to earth.

The instrumental’s motion is tidal, evolving without urgency yet never static. Each layer builds and recedes, allowing you to drift into its compositional narrative without losing sense of direction. There’s precision in the looseness, intention in the abstraction, and an awareness of momentum that gives Oxblood & Olive its meditative gravity. The track’s remastered form doesn’t simply revisit old ground; it expands upon it, refining the alchemy that makes Musematic’s work feel simultaneously human and otherworldly.

Based in California, Musematic (the project of Evan Michael Brown) describes his sound as “compositional electronic” — music that tells stories rather than just looping ambience. After achieving immense success with over fifty million Spotify plays for his ambient work, he began this project to explore something more personal, more rhythmically alive. In Oxblood & Olive (2025 Remaster), he reaches that ideal with effortless lucidity, allowing his musemes — those minimal units of musical meaning — to collide and form constellations of sound.

Oxblood & Olive (2025 Remaster) is now available on all major streaming platforms, including Bandcamp. 

Review by Amelia Vandergast