Appleblim Finds the Middle Distance on Liminal Tides

Laurie Osborne’s career has long been split between two musical and geographic poles. As Appleblim, he came up DJing early dubstep at London’s FWD>>, began producing in Bristol in 2006, and co-ran Skull Disco with Sam Shackelton before launching Apple Pips. Berlin became a second anchor: Ricardo Villalobos and the minimal techno circle gravitated toward Skull Disco’s sound, and after Brexit Osborne relocated there, teaching synthesis at Catalyst and composing at a shared Funkhaus studio.

Liminal Tides renders that midpoint in hazy drums and slowly shifting texture, closer to hauntological post-dubstep and 1990s Berlin dub techno than to club pressure. “Gaseous” loops birdsong across dub-drenched pads; “Warmth” and “Globule” work spindly but British-leaning breakbeats. “Crow Crag” and “Weather Vane” move with drowsy momentum, built from tape-hissed repetition and low-end density rather than dancefloor function. “Seagull” closes with foghorn and gull cries, returning the record to water and air.

Osborne has described the album through opposites—awake and asleep, self and no self, conscious mind and no-mind. Those tensions do not